The Jade Dragon
by Chocolate Orchids
Summary: To her parents, firebending was a curse. To her, it was an art. To the mysterious traveler that showed up in their village one afternoon, it was a way of life. Desperate to learn both his bending technique and his secrets, she follows him when he leaves. Yet, she ends up learning more about him- and herself - than she ever could about firebending. ZukoxOC
1. Zuko's Not So Alone

**Greetings, earth-dwellers! I've decided to make this Chocolate Orchid's Inaugural Fanfiction-Hosted Saga!**

**(Because I like fancy words)**

**So, before we delve into the tale, I would like to point out that this takes place during Book Two: Chapter Seven – Zuko Alone, as you can probably tell by the chapter title. The only change I made is that instead of running into an eight-year-old boy, he runs into… well, you'll have to read and see. **

**This story will follow the original A:tLA plot up to a certain point; I might change some minor details. Not by much. Just some dialogue/a short scene I find pointless or something similar to that. Besides the addition of an OC, this is STRICTLY CANON. Or at least, strictly canon with a tiny, bitsy bit of personal Gaang romantic preference. *Cough Tokka Cough* (For those of you that don't like it, it's only if you really squint in waaaaaaay later chapters. Plus I really don't like Suki, so I refuse to write Sukka or Soki or whatever you want to call it)**

**Enough of my incessant rambling! On to the disclaimer!**

**I do not own Avatar: the Last Airbender. I don't own Zuko either, as much as I want to. Spirits, I don't even own half of the dialogue in this chapter since it's based on Zuko Alone. I hate using other people's words, but it had to be done. **

**Claimer!**

**I own Quinfen Xu, what she says, thinks, her necklace, and, of course, her wonderful ostrich-horse named Harvey. **

**Chapter One: Zuko's Not So Alone**

* * *

Quinfen walked through the mostly empty streets of her small, Earth Kingdom town as the sun beat down on her tanned skin. A small handful of coins jingling in her pocket made her more wary than usual; the poor would do almost anything for money and the 'soldiers' that protected them liked nothing more than taking it away. She technically could defend herself, but her particular means to do so were forbidden in excess by her mother. That, and if she demonstrated them she would be executed on the spot.

She walked up to the vendor – a man named Hui – as a band of soldiers gambled behind her.

"Hello, Quin," Hui said, looking back to the inventory section of the small store. "The usual?"

"Yes, but could you throw in an extra bag of feed? One of the pig-sheep broke its leg and can't graze."

"Right away."

As he disappeared into the back of the store a man rode up behind her on a scraggly ostrich-horse. She threw back a glance, seeing the young man. He had a scar across the left side of his face, but his hair was obscured by a cone-shaped hat. He was well built and rather handsome, she noted as he dismounted. Turning back around, she straightened her olive green vest and the brownish-yellow, long sleeved shirt beneath. Both were short; only covering half of her torso, and she instantly felt self-conscious about the man undoubtedly looking at her.

"Here you are, Quin," Hui said, putting three sacks of feed, a loaf of bread, and a green and red necklace out in front of her. She eyed the necklace curiously.

"I can't afford that, Hui," she said with a sad smile; the necklace was beautiful. It was the symbol of Yin and Yang, the Yin being made of what appeared to be emerald and the Yang of ruby.

"I know; it just matches your… unique heritage," he almost whispered the last part of his sentence, glancing to the soldiers behind them. "I got it for free from a trader down in the colonies who just wanted to be free of it, and thought you might like it."

"I can't accept-"

"I won't get a buyer out here anyway. Just take it; you'll thank me some day."

"I'll thank you now," she said with a grin, fastening it behind her neck and tucking the charm below the collar of her high-necked shirt. She then moved out of the way with her bags of feed and bread so the man behind her could order. However, as she set the coins on the table and began to walk away, one of the soldiers blocked her way.

"Ma'am, the army is hungry."

"That is a shame," she retorted evenly, trying to sound as dignified and aloof as she could. "I'm sure the general will send your salary soon so that you may buy food for your men."

"Our coins will not arrive for another week."

"I apologize for the tardiness of your income. Perhaps the Earth King's subordinates will be more prompt with deliveries in the future, but I really must be going. Good day."

"We're asking for your donation to our cause."

"I politely refuse."

"It isn't an option," the soldier replied, making to grab her food. As he moved forward, however, the man who was behind her in line pulled out a sword and stuck it in-between the two Earth Kingdom citizens.

"Strangers are fighting your battles now, Xu?" the soldier asked with a smirk. "You might be a fine girl, but you aren't _that_ pretty."

"Back away from her," the man said, now drawing the second half of his double sword and using the flat of the blade to gently push Quin backwards.

"You aren't worth the energy, stranger," the soldier spat before walking away. The man moved back to the vendor, taking two bags of feed and some water before remounting his ostrich-horse. Quin quickly grabbed the reins to prevent him from taking off.

"Thanks for what you did back there," she said, a light blush forming on her cheeks.

"No problem," he replied, urging his ostrich-horse forward. She pulled backward on the bridle, halting the beast in its tracks yet again.

"Hey, how about you come back to my parent's farm? We could get you and your ostrich-horse a meal in return for your help."

The man sighed and nodded as the girl drug his animal forward. "I'm Quinfen Xu, Quin if you prefer."

* * *

"You a friend of Quin's?" her father, a man named Gonsu, asked as the man walked up to the farm behind her.

"He needed a place to rest," Quin clarified. "And he stood up to the soldiers downtown."

"Impressive," her mother said with a nod before turning to the man. "Do you have a name?"

"I'm… uh…"

"A man doesn't have to share his name if he doesn't want to, Sela," Quin's father said to his wife. "He's welcome here, name or not, for standing his ground against those Earth Kingdom soldiers. The real men are fighting the Fire Nation, like my son, Sensu."

"Supper's almost ready," Sela said, changing the subject and adressing the man. "Would you like to have some?"

"I need to be moving on," he replied, too proud to take the family's food.

"Gonsu could use some help on the barn," she continued. "Why don't you two work for a while, then we'll eat?"

The man paused, but then grudgingly agreed at the fierce growling of his stomach.

"It's this way," Gonsu said, guiding him to their left. "We're just re-shingling a part of the roof."

"I don't see why I can't help," Quin sighed to her father as the two men climbed up the ladder and started working on the roof of the old building. The man picked up the hammer, and after examining it for a few seconds, began to unskillfully pound the nails into the wooden frame of the barn.

"Because you're a young lady," her father reminded her as he worked.

"Are people like that where you're from?" she asked the man.

"Yes and no."

"Where would that be?"

"Don't ask the man personal questions," her father said. "A man's past is his own business."

"Okay."

There were a few minutes of silence, during which the man hit his thumb with the hammer twice. He refused to gasp in pain, though; he only grimaced before trying again. Quin sighed and climbed up the top of the ladder, sitting down next to him and taking the hammer away.

"Hey!" he protested. "I'm using that!"

"You're doing it wrong. Hold it like this, not like… a sword," she said while demonstrating. She handed it back and jumped down from the roof before her father could reprimand her, dusting off her poofy, olive green pants.

"I'm sorry about her," Gonsu said after she was called inside by her mother. "Ever since her older brother went off to fight she's been trying to prove that she's just as good at working around the farm as he was."

Zuko didn't reply, merely readjusting his hold on the tool and driving the nail into the roof.

oOo~oOo~(The Line Break Wasn't Working Here)~oOo~oOo

"Quin," her mother said from inside. "Can you come help me find the spark rock?"

"Sure, Mother," she sighed, walking into the kitchen. Her mother had been starting a fire in their old-fashioned wood stove, but dropped a spark rock underneath it on accident. She was currently stretched out on the floor, fishing around beneath the oven blindly. Sela turned to her daughter thankfully.

"Can you reach it? I think I felt it a bit to my right, but it squirted out from beneath my fingers. I need to get the fire started if I ever want to cook dinner."

"I could start the fire myself," Quin said with a shrug.

"You are not to use that devil-bending in this house, do you hear me?" Sela hissed, her good mood changing dramatically.

"It isn't my fault Grandpa was a firebender."

"Quinfen, if the men in the village hear of that, do you know what they would do to you?"

"Rip me limb from limb," she recited with a sigh. "But Hui knows and he's fine with it."

"Hui is a family friend who found out by accident when you were seven and obviously not a threat. The other men won't take it so lightly."

"But it isn't like I work for the Fire Nation, so I don't see why I can't just start a little cooking fire or something."

"You are never to use it, no matter what for. Agreed?"

"Yes, Mother," she said in defeat, pulling the spark rock out from underneath the stove. Sela nodded in approval, setting the kindling aflame.

* * *

Dinner was passed mainly in silence, and afterwards the man was offered a space to rest in the barn. Quin retired to her room, but sleep evaded her.

_It's pretty strange to get visitors in town, _she thought, lying awake in her bed. _He must not know the area well; there isn't anything for miles outside this place_.

_I wonder how he got that scar. He isn't a very skilled hired hand, so it seems fair to rule out a work accident. Or maybe it makes it more likely, depending on how you look at it. Maybe he stood up to someone who actually fought back, not like those weaklings in the village. I bet he's some sort of vigilante, roaming the countryside and fighting the evils of the world._

_That's pretty hot._

_So is he. _

_Okay, okay. Not thinking like a lop-eared rabbit in spring. Just think about something else. Anything else._

_I can't believe Mother keeps lecturing me about my bending. It isn't like I can do anything more than start a brush fire. I might as well know the enemy's tactics well enough to beat them if – when – they get to this hole-in-the-wall town._

Her mind made up, she placed her pillow under the covers in case her parents checked on her, as they were known to do. Quietly, she crept out of her room, down the hall, and out to the sunflower field.

* * *

Zuko awoke from his restless sleep with the feeling that something was out of the ordinary. He had gotten the feeling a few times before, usually a few minutes before someone tried to assassinate him. He took his sword off the wall and started moving outside slowly.

_Is that… fire?_ He thought as he saw flashes of light from the nearby field. _No, it can't be. That light's _green.

He silently drew closer to the field and saw Quin, who was punching the air with the occasional small flame spouting from her fists. The flames, however, were the exact hue of her eyes; a vibrant light green.

"You're doing it wrong," he said from behind her, causing her to stumble and fall down. She immediately picked herself up and brushed herself off, crossing her arms angrily.

"And you know the right way any better?" she grumbled. "We're at the crossroads of Dirt and Mud. There isn't exactly a firebending academy anywhere nearby."

"I get around," he responded, slightly regretting saying anything to her. "You're thinking of fire as a crude weapon. It's an extension of your body, of your soul."

"Care to give me a demonstration?" she asked hopefully.

"No."

"Are you saying that you don't firebend? I swear I won't tell if you do."

He remained silent; an act which she decided was a conformation of his abilities.

"Please?"

"I don't want to burn down your field," he replied.

"Come on," she said. "Just a little bit?"

Zuko didn't answer. Deciding that two could play his game, she went back to training. He went a little over ten seconds before he couldn't resist correcting her.

"Your form is off. You could fall over with one solid blow. Stand like you know what you're doing, whether you do or not."

"Well, I _don't _have any idea what I'm doing. I mean, I've been practicing in secret for years, but I don't really know how to control it. Or how to make anything more than a spark. You clearly think you know what you're talking about; how about you give me a few pointers?"

Zuko sighed in annoyance, but gave her a sharp nod and spoke, remembering a lecture that his uncle had given him more than a dozen times, but he had mever taken to heart. "Power comes from the breath. You're trying to force the fire out of you. It needs to come to you as easily as breathing."

She tried another combination of punches, the flame spouting from her outstretched fist with a slight bit more power. He shook his head.

"No. Your attacks are only half-hearted at best. Now do it again, but actually _try_."

Zuko's fifteen-minute long tutelage session proved to be exhausting, as by the end she was panting heavily.

"I said _pointers_, not full-blown workout," she groaned, her dark, reddish-brown bangs falling over her eyes as she braced herself against a dead tree.

"You improved," he said. "That's what you wanted, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess. I still suck, though."

"You aren't bad for someone with so little training. You should go to one of the colonies and learn from an expert."

"I can't. Mom would kill me if I even _suggested_ leaving. She doesn't exactly support my bending," she said with a yawn before her eyes met his, gratitude displayed across her face. "I should get back to bed. See you in the morning?"

"Yeah, sure," Zuko replied as he saw her disappear into the darkness.

* * *

"This should get you through a few days," Sela said as she gave Zuko a package of food the next morning. He nodded thankfully as a cloud of dust in the distance caught the family's attention. As it grew closer they saw that it was composed of Earth Kingdom soldiers. Quin cast a quick, accusing glance over to Zuko, who shook his head slightly. She nodded in relief before squinting at the cloud and seeing the figures of five soldiers on ostrich-horses, racing towards them.

"What do you think they want?" Gonsu asked, not noticing the two teenagers' nonverbal exchange.

"Trouble," Zuko replied.

The men approached, sneers plastered across all off their faces.

"What do you want, Gow?" Gonsu asked the lead soldier.

"Just thought I should tell you; your son's battalion has been captured. You boys hear what they did with the last batch of soldiers they got?"

"Dressed them up in Fire Nation uniforms and put them on the front lines unarmed," one soldier replied with a laugh, spitting on the ground at Quin's feet. Zuko saw her start to shake with rage out of the corner of his eye. "Not like any farm hand knows how to wield a man's weapon in the first place. I doubt he's still standing."

"Watch your mouth, bastard," she said angrily. Gow raised an eyebrow and rode his ostrich-horse closer, but was cut off by Zuko, who had moved in-between the two. The man glared at Zuko for a second, sizing him up, before turning away.

"Why bother rooting around in the mud with these pigs?" he said with another sneer before riding away. Zuko glanced down at the girl behind him, still trembling, but this time in fear.

"Sensu," she murmured, barely audible. She wrapped her arms around her chest and Zuko noticed her red and green necklace, the charm right beneath her collarbone.

_Isn't that Grandfather Sozin's lost necklace?_

_No, it can't be. She's just some girl in a po-dunk Earth Kingdom town._

_A girl who can firebend…_

"I'm going to find Sensu and bring him back," Gonsu announced, interrupting Zuko's thoughts and embracing his wife. She burst out into tears and raced inside, her husband quick to follow.

"I take it you aren't staying?" Quin asked Zuko, who was looking at her parents in slight interest and confusion.

"No. I have to move on," he replied. She looked at him slightly and felt something curl up inside of her; an undescribeable urge to do something to make him at least remember her. She felt cold stone touch her neck and saw her necklace, an idea forming.

"Before you go, I want you to take something," she said with a half-smile, unfastening her necklace and handing it to him. "As a memento."

He took the necklace delicately, then tucked it into a pouch on his saddle. As he did, he dropped his sheathed dagger onto the dirt. Giving her a brief nod, he spurred his ostrich-horse off towards the plains.

"Wait, you dropped your- oh, forget it. Just go ahead and leave," she said, rolling her eyes and taking a step towards the barn. After a second of consideration, however, she tucked the blade into her belt with a slight smile.

* * *

"Quin, what are you doing?" Sela asked her daughter, who was twirling the knife on the table.

"Nothing," she sighed, quickly covering the dagger. A harsh knock on the door called her mother away from interrogating her, despite the 'we'll talk about this later' look that the girl received. Sela opened the door to see a band of soldiers, all of them smiling malevolently.

"Hello, Ma'am. The army requests a noble donation."

"I'm sorry, we don't have enough food to spare," Sela replied, attempting to close the door. The man stuck his foot inside, opening the door back up.

"We weren't talking about food, Ma'am," he replied, casting a hungry glance at Quin.

"In your dreams, pervert," she snorted, putting a hand on the knife subconsciously.

"Let's make it a date, sweetheart," he said, shoving past Sela to get to her. Before he could get there, Quin drew her knife and held it as threateningly as she could, a strand of hair falling out of her ponytail and into her eyes.

"Oh, I'm so scared," the soldier laughed, looking at the short knife. "I have a weapon bigger than that in my-"

A burst of lime-green flame came from Quin's free hand, scorching the man's beard. All four of the men stared at her blankly for a second before storming through the door and attacking in full force. She saw her mother race out the door, and was thankful that she wouldn't have to aim around her – not that she had much of an ability to aim at all.

_Extension of my soul… Power from my breath... extension of my soul…_ she repeated to herself mentally as she inhaled deeply and threw another ball of fire at the men. It set one of the soldier's hats ablaze, but before she could celebrate her arm was enclosed in stone, her other quick to follow.

"Damn," she hissed. Gow earth-bent the stones so her hands were encased in earthen gloves, connected like handcuffs. He also manipulated the earth so the dagger was pried from her fingers and into his hands.

"We have a _special_ little firebug here, now don't we?" Gow asked rhetorically, examining her weapon as two soldiers shoved her forward, out the door of the small house. "Take her to the village square."

* * *

"You have to help," Sela yelled to Zuko, who she found napping by a stream. "The soldiers came back after Gonsu left and Quin pulled a knife on them! I don't

even know where she got it! The men took her to the village square to execute her!"

"What else did she do?" "Zuko said, moving over to his ostrich-horse.

"She attacked them with the knife, I told you that! Now hurry, please!"

"You don't get executed for drawing a knife on a soldier," Zuko said, mounting the creature. "So what else did she do?"

The woman didn't respond and he nodded in understanding.

"She firebent at them," Zuko finished to her surprise, kicking his ostrich horse in the sides to spur it towards town. He fingered the necklace she had given him, which he had moved to his neck as soon as he was out of sight of the village. "I'll get your daughter back."

* * *

"Well, we've decided to let you go out the way you came in; burning," Gow said to Quin, who was bound to a post in the center of the village while many of the villagers looked on in disbelief and horror. She was concentrating on not trembling in fear, despite the fact that she was terrified. He gestured to the spark rocks he found in the house and the wood piled at her feet. "Any last words?"

Quin's only response was to spit in the soldier's face, to which he laughed.

"It's going to be fun to watch you blister, traitor."

Before he could click the two rocks together, a thump distracted him. Turning around, Gow saw Zuko using the hilt of his sword to knock a soldier out. Quin smiled to herself.

"Thank the Spirits," she murmured as her heart melted in relief and Gow and the other four soldiers moved into formation.

"Let the girl go," Zuko said.

"Who do you think you are, stranger?" one soldier asked.

"That doesn't matter. I know who you are, though. You aren't soldiers, you're tyrants. Freeloaders. You abuse your power over women and children. Why burn an innocent girl because of abilities that can help _your_ army?"

"Are you going to let that _boy_ stand there and insult you like that?" Gow asked. One of the soldiers raced at him, Zuko knocking him backwards with the hilt of his sword. The next three came one by one, each one being defeated by nothing more than a well planted kick or punch.

"That's enough of that," Gow said, drawing his hammers.

As the two men fought, Sela moved towards her daughter and began untying her from the pole. As the ropes around the girl were cast away, an attack from Gow sent Zuko flying backwards.

"No. Get up…" Quin whispered when he didn't stand back up right away. A few seconds passed and Gow's grin widened. He moved over towards the fallen man, his hammers drawn and ready to strike. Before he could, however, Zuko lunged to his feet and let loose an inferno of bright orange flame that sent Gow to the ground. As soon as the conflagrations around him died down slightly, he sent blasts of fire at the soldier, propelling him backwards into a wall. Rubble piled around the man, trapping him under wood and rock.

"W-who are you?" Gow asked weakly.

"My name is Zuko, son of Princess Ursa and Fire Lord Ozai. Prince of the Fire Nation and heir to the throne."

"Liar!" a man from the crowd shouted. "I've heard of you! Your own father gave you that scar and disowned you!"

_A banished prince?_ Quin thought, raising an eyebrow as her mother finished untying the cords and embraced her. _That's even better than a vigilante._

Zuko didn't respond, but instead took the blade from the cowering combatant and moved towards Quin and her mother.

"Not a step closer," Sela said, shoving Quin behind her. Zuko halted, but extended the dagger to her.

"It's yours; you should have it," he said.

"Get away from my daughter!" Sela yelled, dragging Quin away from the man. Quin glanced back, only to see Zuko riding away on his ostrich-horse, towards the setting sun.

* * *

_You improved… You aren't bad for someone with so little training … Prince of the Fire Nation…You should learn from an expert… expert… expert…_

"Ach!" Quin said, bolting upright in her bed. She had been tossing and turning sleeplessly for a few hours, and the memories full of Zuko's voice were not making it any easier.

_Maybe I _should_ go to the colonies. I do want to train my bending. I want to be someone who can help my country in this war._

_And I think I know the perfect way to do it._

She crept out of her bedroom as silently as ever, stopping only to throw a few clothes into her olive-colored sack and scribble a quick note to leave on her pillow. She then snuck into the kitchen and grabbed a few days' worth of food, sticking it in a spare saddlebag she found. After securing a leather water satchel, she went out to the barn.

"Shh, Harvey, shh,"she said to her elderly ostrich-horse as he squawked. She strapped both of her bags to his back and mounted him as quickly as possible, spurring him out the open barn doors and towards the western plains and the rising moon.

* * *

Sela awoke the next morning to a silent house. since Sensu had left a year ago, the house was rarely quiet. Quin cooked breakfast fairly early to busy herself, which usually consisted of a hearty amount of clanking pots and pans. She shook her head with a sigh; Quin must be sleeping in – she had been through a lot in the past few days.

Sela looked sadly to the sunken-in part of the mattress her husband usually occupied. Shaking her head to banish mournful memories, she walked out of her room and began busying herself in the kitchen, preparing breakfast for herself and her daughter.

As soon as the rooster pig's eggs were properly fried, she let herself into her daughter's room.

"Quin," she began, then realized that the room was vacant. "Quin?"

She saw a half-folded piece of paper on the pillow and opened it nervously. As Sela read the fifteen sloppily-jotted words, she felt tears welling up in her eyes and choked back a sob.

_I've gone to fulfill my destiny and learn firebending. I love you. Don't stop me._

* * *

**There you have it, folks, Chapter One of **_**The Jade Dragon**_**.**

**Next Week = How will she manage to find Zuko? How will her react to having an unwanted student? And most importantly - how will Iroh deal with her stunning admission? **

**What is this admission, you ask? Wait 'til next weekend and see in Chapter Two ~ Chasing Bittersweet**


	2. Chasing Bittersweet

**Sorry this is so late; I have way too many time-consuming activities. And I hate them. But hey! This is out now! So all good, right?**

**Anyways, I got a review from **_rcool98_** commenting that green fire was a cool idea. I agree, and would also like to say that there is a specific reason for my making her have said ability that is in accordance with a few theories about firebending that I have; it isn't just a random gift I gave out. Unfortunately, it can't be explained until I get to Book Three. I'll hint at it now and again, though, so I'm going to throw out there if you figure it out sooner than I address it, you can get a sneak peek at a future chapter. **

**I also got a review from **_CourtingTheMoon_** asking for more interaction between Quin and Zuko. Though they'll grow into friends over the next seven or so chapters, due to certain events in this chapter our dear Zuzu is going to feel slightly put-out and annoyed by Quin. So limited interaction again, though I managed to sneak in some conversation here and there.**

**I think that's all for now; enjoy!**

* * *

Quin sighed as her ostrich-horse squawked in discontent one again. He was forty years old, give or take a few months, and a good twenty years past his prime.

"Let's stop here, okay bud?" She asked Harvey rhetorically. She had spent the last three days following the Prince's trail - ranging from alongside two parallel scorches in the ground to the tiniest scuffs in caked mud - and they had finally ridden into the dilapidated town where the tracks ended. The tracking was reminiscent of her days back at the family homestead, when she and her brother had spent hours, even days, out in an earthbending-created tent in the back of the twenty-five acre property together, trying to find lop-eared rabbit holes and telling scary stories around an eerily green fire. The thought made her smile contentedly, though a slight shiver ran through her bones as the first lightning bolt appeared on a distant hill. The flash made her look over to the other hilltops, and she noticed that a house atop one of them had a light shining through one of the windows.

Zuko.

_I wonder what Fire Nation customs are for asking for an apprenticeship,_ she thought as she spurred Harvey forward._ Oh, Spirits; I wonder what Earth Kingdom customs are for asking for an apprenticeship. Especially to a prince. I mean, what am I thinking? He's royalty! He must have way more important things to do than train an Earth Kingdom farm-girl in the sacred ways of a country he probably hates for abandoning him. Then again, he did seem to be wandering fairly pointlessly. Maybe he doesn't have anything better to do... but still, I wonder what he was banished for…_

_Whatever I say, it has to sound educated and formal. Something that would make me seem worthy of his instruction. _

'_Prince Zuko, It would be my honor to be your humble apprentice.'_

_Close, close. But he might say something like 'yeah, it would be your honor'. Anything else?_

'_Prince Zuko, I would like to ask you for the privilege of your apprenticeship.'_

_No, it doesn't sound right._

'_Prince Zuko, would you allow me the honor of training in the noble art of firebending under your tutelage?'_

_Too wordy, but I have to think of something. I can't just wing it…_

_Can I?_

By the time she finished wondering, she was already at the top of the hill. Her heart beating wildly at her lack of a plan, she tied Harvey to a post nearby. She walked the rest of the way over to the house on foot. A good section of one wall was missing, so she decided that knocking wasn't necessary.

She walked inside, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves. As she did, she saw an older man sitting by a flickering fire, warming a pot of tea. He looked over and saw the girl standing there, her face a mixture of defeat and sadness as she realized he was the only one in the room.

"Expecting someone else?"

"Yeah, I actually was," she sighed, trying desperately to think of where she lost the prince's trail.

"Would you like some tea?" he asked, offering her a cup.

"Sure," she said, moving inside and sitting down next to him. "I've never had tea before."

At that remark, the old man spit out his mouthful of the liquid, making the small fire splutter and begin to die.

"Never had tea?! That's like never being happy!"

"It was a luxury in my village and we never had the money to afford it."

The fire had been reduced to nothing more than a few, softly glowing embers, plunging the two into almost complete darkness. Quin, not remembering that man was Earth Kingdom in her state of conflict, moved her hand over the few wooden planks and they sprung back to life, glowing as bright green as ever. They engendered an unnatural glow over the worn-out house, she noticed, but it was pretty in a strange, pyromatic way. However, her control was still lacking and the fire quickly spread to the small shrubbery on the dirt floor of the home.

"Spirits!" she exclaimed angrily, trying to put out the flames, which were growing exactly as quickly as her frustration.

"Allow me," the man said. He breathed in deeply, and the flames surrounding the fire-pit increased in intensity for a moment before dying completely when he breathed out. He chuckled as he looked up at her surprised face. "You have a lot of power in you."

"You're a firebender too?" she asked, glancing at the mild-mannered man and then back at the smoking shrubbery.

"Indeed I am. Even though you seem perfectly capable of travelling alone, young lady, I may ask what are you doing out here?"

"I've been looking for someone, but I must have gotten your trails mixed," she sighed. "And going back to my village would take way too long – I'd lose him completely."

"So what are you going to do?" he asked curiously while pouring himself another cupful.

"I don't know. I can't really go home. I… I left my mother when she needed me - needs me – most to learn firebending and I can't just give up and return to her dishonorably. But then again, the colonies are weeks away so that isn't a really reasonable option. There's also no way I can find Zuko even if he did travel this way; he's moving a lot faster than me and the trail ended here anyways."

Iroh blinked at her use of the name 'Zuko'. She must have been tracking his nephew, and if so, she must be excellent at pursuing prey; a skill that would come in handy for moneyless travelers. But to learn firebending from the frequently emotionally-unstable bender… that could be nothing but trouble. Yet, the girl sitting before him and sipping at her tea dejectedly seemed so desperate to learn.

"Perhaps I could be of assistance. I am a firebender, after all," he said with a chuckle. "If you'd allow me the honor, I would like to be your teacher."

"Seriously?" she asked, her face relighting before she composed herself and straightened her posture. "I mean, I will be eternally grateful to you, Sifu…"

"Iroh. And you are?"

"My name is Quinfen – well, Quin if you want."

"A lovely name for a lovely young woman," he said with a smile as a crash of thunder resounded from outside. She yawned before realizing that she hadn't slept in a number of days, and the warmth of the offer and the drink made her comfortable and drowsy. She looked at the old man appraisingly for a second; if it came down to it she was fairly sure she could take him in a fight, even if he was a far better bender.

"I think I'm going to go to sleep, Sifu," she said tiredly, leaning against the only intact wall. "I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all, Miss Quin."

* * *

Zuko groaned as he made his way back to the abandoned house in the early hours of the morning. It was still dark and raining, and the bleakness did nothing to lighten his foul mood.

_Before, I was struck by lightning and couldn't return it. Now, I _can_ return it and it refuses to strike. Why does this always happen to me?_

He moved into the decrepit home, his mind gloomier than the storm at his back. A loud rattling sound made him glance to his side, and he saw Uncle Iroh was sleeping near dead coals, snoring as loud as always. Sighing in defeat, Zuko curled up on the floor near the corner, not even noticing the girl who was sleeping no more than a foot away.

* * *

Zuko awoke to feel something warm brushing his nose. He laughed slightly, half asleep.

"Stoppit," he slurred with a smile, not wanting to open his eyes. "Tickles."

Whatever tickled him mumbled in consent, and he felt something warm curl up nearer to him. Now the sensation was on his neck, causing him to laugh more openly.

The sound awoke Iroh, who peeked over to the teenagers. Either Zuko or Quin – perhaps both – appeared to have rolled over during the night, their bodies almost pressing against each other. A bit of Quin's hair was resting on his neck, moving back and forth with her steady breathing.

_I should probably wake them up,_ Iroh thought to himself with a small smile. _But they look so cute…_

The man stretched, forgetting his side was injured from Azula's attack two days before. He groaned as a dull pain echoed through his shoulder.

The two teenagers' eyes shot open at the noise, meeting the sight of the other less than three inches away. Shrieking, they launched themselves in different directions. Both panting because of the adrenaline rushing through their systems, they stared at each other in complete shock.

"Sorry I woke you two," the old man said, stretching out a bit more, but avoiding using his left shoulder. "I didn't mean to-"

"What are you doing here?!" both teenagers yelled to the other, regaining their use of speech at the same time and cutting off the Dragon of the West.

"Come on, now, there's no need for glaring and yelling," Iroh said with a yawn. "I'm sure that this can be worked out peacefully. Now, Zuko, Quin is my new firebending pupil. Quin, Zuko is my nephew."

"We've met," Zuko said while crossing his arms, and Quin noticed her necklace hanging around his neck. She smiled slightly to herself, glad that he actually did appreciate the gift. Zuko noticed her looking at the necklace and coughed slightly, orienting his body so to shield it from her view. As he did, Iroh yawned, rubbing his stomach as it growled.

"I don't suppose you packed any food," he said to Quin, not noticing the awkward air thick in the room.

"I think have some left, Sifu," she said, glancing to the man. "I can probably cook something up."

"That would be lovely," Iroh smiled. The second she was out of sight around the wall, Zuko turned to his uncle, eyes ablaze.

"Why in the name of Agni did you offer to be her firebending teacher?" he hissed.

"She seems like a nice girl, and she shows a lot of promise. Plus she appreciates good tea!"

"You're kidding me, right?"`

"Not at all, Prince Zuko."

"She could be a threat to us! What if she reveals our identities? Or if her mother and father come looking for her? Or if she gets hurt and we have to get her help?"

"I will take full responsibility for her actions and teach her our aliases. She seems very bright, after all."

Zuko snorted, annoyed. "Very bright? She nearly got herself executed by _the Earth Kingdom_! That seems like it's a pretty hard thing to do, considering all she really had to do to avoid it would be _not bending_!"

"Come on, now, Prince Zuko. Just give her a chance."

"But-"

"How about you give me a three-day trial period," Quin suggested from the side of the house, peeking around the corner of the wall. She remembered Sensu's master doing that before he taught him earthbending two winters ago, and it seemed to be a good test on whether two people –or in this case, three people – could get along.

"An excellent idea, my young pupil," Iroh nodded while Zuko wondered when she had begun listening to their conversation. "Isn't it, Prince Zuko?"

"Sure, fine, whatever," Zuko replied with a slight scowl, upset at being pressured into even temporarily allowing her to travel with them. "Is breakfast ready?"

"I only _just_ started cooking," she replied. "The water isn't even boiling yet – Oh, and I borrowed your pot, Sifu, I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all. While we wait, how about we start your first lesson?"

Quin nodded eagerly as the man . "Yes please, Sifu. Oh, and Prince Zuko, can you stir the pot while we practice? Otherwise the rice will clump."

"So I'm on kitchen duty now?!"

The old man and his younger student were already out the door, however, and Zuko groaned in disgust as he looked over at the pot steaming over a light green fire, kernels of white rice on the bottom. He fished around in his uncle's bag for a few seconds until he found a large spoon. He looked back at the pot in loathing, twirling the spoon between his fingers.

_How do you even cook this junk anyways?_

* * *

"How much do you know about firebending, Quin?" Iroh asked as she stretched out a ways behind their temporary home.

"Not very much; I've just been teaching myself for the last eight years or so. I don't really know anything but what I learned when Prince Zuko gave me a lesson."

"Well, I suppose we have a lot of work to do," he chuckled. "Now, the key element in firebending is the breath. You draw in power when you breathe, then send out the breath in an attack."

Quin remembered Zuko telling her almost exactly the same thing and nodded along.

"Now, what did my nephew teach you?"

"Um, just a few attacks, but he also said the same thing about breathing."

"Excellent. Now, would you care to demonstrate one of the things you learned?"

"Um, sure," she replied, taking her firebending stance cautiously. Aiming at a withered tree, she shot a searing green fireball at it. She missed her mark by a few feet, making her sigh in defeat.

"Not bad," Iroh reassured her. "But you need to adjust your form a bit to the left."

* * *

About a half-hour later, the two walked back to the collapsing house. Zuko was stirring some of the rice, annoyed. Quin looked into the pot and saw that the rice had melted over the hot flames, creating an almost glue-like substance.

"What took you so long?" he asked with a scowl, holding up a ladle full of the whitish glop. "This stuff got overcooked."

"Oh, sorry," Quin apologized immediately, looking at the goo. "I should have told you to take it off the fire sooner."

"No kidding," Zuko muttered, letting the sludge fall back into the pot. "What are we going to eat now?"

"I think I still have some other food. I can get some of it if you'd prefer."

"I'd prefer dirt over this stuff."

Quin laughed good-heartedly and Zuko looked at her curiously, wondering what about his statement was funny.

"My brother said almost the exact same thing when I first started cooking," she explained while concentrating on extinguishing the fire beneath the pot. After it had dispersed a few seconds later, she picked up the pot and placed it in front of Harvey and the prince's ostrich-horse, both of which plunged their beaks into the mixture. "I think you two would get along fairly well."

"You have a brother?" Iroh asked curiously, putting a pot of tea over a different fire pit.

"Yeah," she replied, and Zuko detected a hint of sadness in her voice. "He's fighting in the war, though – he's an earthbender."

"How?" Zuko asked. "Wouldn't he be a firebender too?"

"No, my father's father was a firebender and my father's mother was an earthbender. My mother's entire family hasn't bended, so I technically have equal amounts of each race in me."

"Why didn't your grandfather teach you bending?" Zuko questioned, slightly irritated by her tagging along when she had a potential teacher.

"He died before my father was born," she said while digging through her satchel. She hardly had any food left, since she had eaten most of it on the journey to the abandoned village. The now ostrich-horse-food was virtually he only consumable substance she had, besides an apple and the heel of a loaf of bread. "To be honest, I don't even know his name, since Grandmother refuses to speak of him."

"Oh."

Quin finished searching the bag and sighed in downfall. "I'm sorry, Prince Zuko, but don't think we have anything else."

"We have tea," Iroh said as the said liquid steeped. "Never underestimate the power of a cup of tea."

"Uncle, we don't have any food!" Zuko insisted.

"We'll get some as soon as we go to the next town. Until then we can just find things to eat along the way," Iroh assured his temperamental nephew.

"There isn't a town for fifty miles!"

Quin watched the two men squabble – well, Zuko squabble and Iroh counter his arguments calmly – and sighed to herself. It was clear that the Fire Nation prince was far from the romanticized version that she had hoped for, and she could also tell that he resented her taking his uncle's attention off of him. Still, she was fairly sure that leaving home to train with them was the right choice. After all, where else would she find a firebending teacher in the center of the Earth Kingdom? Plus, it wasn't every day that she stumbled upon a prince, even if he was a bit moody.

Yes, she was sure that she made the right decision; no matter how much she would regret it later.

* * *

**So, here's the ending A/N where I plead for reviews!**

**Seriously, though, last time only 1/40 viewers actually reviewed. I get that not everybody's going to review my story, but it just takes 15-45 seconds to type a review with good grammar, a claim and evidence; for example:**

_**I liked it because I think the idea of green fire is really cool! Update soon!**_

**And that literally took 10 seconds, while showing what you think, why you think it, and a bit of support. It could also be negative, like so:**

_**I don't like it because there isn't enough interaction and you make Quin too much like Katara**_**. **

**(That was just an example, I promise not to make Quin a second Katara, and I'm fairly sure she hasn't acted Katara-y so far)**

**Moving on, I know that all of you have **_**some**_** opinion about my story, and I just want a few more of you to share it with me. Otherwise, I don't know **_**what**_** people think of it, which makes me doubt myself as a writer. I hate that feeling.**

**Yeah, so, review and be back next week for Chapter Three: The Harder They Fall...**


	3. The Harder They Fall

**Hello, people of the Archives! Sorry for the lateness, as usual. Anyway, I was on Tumblr (my username is ChocOrchids, if you were wondering) today and saw the most epic post. No, 'epic' doesn't do this post justice. It's just… ugh. So awesome, there aren't words. Besides supermegawesomefoxyhot. Ah, **_**A Very Potter Musical**_**. Gets me every time. Anyways, now I cease rambling and quote from **_blogforthepainfullyghostly_**;**

"honestly my life's dream is to get a big dog and name it Zuko and then write "Honor" on a tennis ball and make him chase it"

**I laugh every time I see this. I really do. It's… just… *Snorts***

**Anyhow, my personal sense of humor aside, I would like to thank all 5 magnificent reviewers. I would also like to make a review-based announcement!**

_**What is it?**_

**The review goal for the next few updates is going to be that every week we get one more review than the week before. It should be pretty easy; 14 people get alerted immediately after I post this. So, this week's review goal is 6 reviews, so that the total review number is at 14. Not that many, not that few. I'm sure we can do it! Oh, and as even MORE incentive to review than to make me super-happy, I usually check out reviewers' profiles and stories. Give a little, get a little *wink*.**

**Enough nonsense! I now present to you Chapter 3 ~ The Harder They Fall**_**,**_** in which the clumsiness of our dear heroine is exposed.**

* * *

"Prince Zuko," Quin said from Harvey's back as she, Zuko, and Iroh rode through a deciduous forest in hope of finding a town. They had set out from the abandoned village earlier that morning, and the sun was just beginning to sink below the horizon. "Would it be possible to stop for a while? We've been riding practically all day."

"Why should we?" the Fire Nation prince asked in reply.

"Because your ostrich-horse is carrying you _and_ Sifu Iroh, so it needs to rest sooner than if it was only carrying you. Also, it's almost sundown."

"We'll stop in an hour."

Silence overtook the travelers again, making Quin shift uneasily. Back at her family's farm, something was always making noise, be it the call of a rooster-pig, the squawk of an ostrich-horse, her father cursing as he worked, even her mother clanking pots and pans together. Before Sensu left he made a racket too, she remembered fondly; he would always wait until things were somewhat quiet before earthbending two boulders into each other. She wasn't used to the silence that seemed to be normal to the other firebenders. Everything was so quiet in the woods, she noted, looking around as they rode through on a thin path. Though she heard the occasional scurrying animal and bird call, it was still much more silent than she could have anticipated. After a few more minutes, they came out of the woods and into a small clearing, a stream running through one corner.

"Let's stop here, alright Prince Zuko?" Iroh asked his nephew. Zuko sighed and halted, looking at the older man with slight annoyance.

"Why?"

"Well, there's enough room for the three of us, there's water, and look!" the man said, pointing to a few bushes on the outskirts of the clearing. Zuko looked at the plant as well, raising an eyebrow.

"Please don't tell me that's what I think it is," he groaned. Iroh, however, had a look of glee spreading over his face.

"They're jasmine plants! I can make amazing tea from such lovely, fresh ingredients!"

"There are mangos, too," Quin observed, seeing a tall tree on the outside of the clearing. "I mean, they probably aren't quite ripe yet, but they _are_ food."

"Sure, fine," Zuko subsided at the promise of a meal. Quin smiled and dismounted, patting Harvey's beak. He squawked and began ripping some of the thin, spring grass out of the ground as she walked over to the fruit tree. The lowest branch on it was at least four feet above the reach of her hand, and she looked at it, slightly put out.

"Harv," she called over to the ostrich horse and he trotted over obediently, though obviously annoyed at the interruption from his grazing. She took his reigns and pulled him directly under the fruit before climbing onto his saddle and standing on the ridge of his back. The animal far too short, however, and the fruit was still over a foot out of the reach of her fingertips. She stood up on her tip-toes, attempting to reach it, but still couldn't manage to get a grip.

"What are you doing?" Zuko asked from behind her, surprising the precariously perched firebender. She toppled off of the animal and landed painfully on her tailbone. The Earth Kingdom girl glared up at Zuko from her position on the ground, as he leaned over her to see her face.

"Trying to get _you_ food, Your Majesty," she grumbled up at him.

"It isn't my fault you fell down," he scoffed.

"Yeah, it kinda is," she replied, crossing her arms over her chest. "You startled me."

"So?"

"You try balancing on something when someone talks to you and you aren't expecting it."

"That's just being clumsy."

"Is not," she insisted, sticking up a hand. He looked at it curiously.

"What are you doing now?"

"Well, I was waiting for you to help me up, but it doesn't seem like that's going to happen," she muttered, pushing herself off the ground and teetering into a standing position. She turned to face the Fire Nation man and realized he was about three inches taller than her, and his shoulders were at least two feet higher than Harvey's back.

"Could you move about a foot to your left?" she asked. Zuko eyed her inquisitively but shifted to the left slightly. She sized up his position relatively to the branch of mangos carefully. "Bit more."

"Why?"

"Do you want food or don't you?" she asked, walking behind him and putting hands on the prince's shoulders. "Now, on three, don't move."

"What are you going to do?"

Quin wasn't listening, though, and breathed out in preparation.

"One… Two… Three!"

With a burst of strength, she launched herself upwards and planted her feet on the prince's shoulders next to her hands. She let go and stood up unsteadily, extending her arms slowly to reach the mango branch.

"What in the name of Agni is going on?" the prince exclaimed as the girl held on to the branch for support.

"I'm getting our dinner. What do you think's going on?" she replied, finding her balance and picking a good deal of the fruit in the nearby vicinity while still clinging to the branch. Zuko felt the toe of her thin shoe dig into his shoulder and he shifted slightly, causing the two of them to sway unsteadily.

"Hey, could you try _not_ to do that?" she asked.

"Well, I'm _so_ sorry," he snorted as she regained her foothold on his broad shoulders.

"Just a few more," she sighed. "Then I'll get down."

They stood in uncomfortable silence for a few more seconds as she picked a total of six of the small, juicy fruits. Suddenly, as she let go of the branch and reached for a large, orange fruit a few feet away, Iroh shouted over to the couple.

"The tea's ready!" he called joyously, the sound startling Zuko. He shifted again, causing Quin to lose her footing and crash down on top of him. Both groaned as they fell to the ground and the wind was knocked out of their lungs.

"Smooth move," he muttered from beneath her as he caught his breath.

"Your fault, Highness," she susurrated breathlessly in return, meeting the prince's eyes. Both glared at the other for a few seconds before Quin glanced away, not being able to look at the tumultuous emotions that seemed to always be rolling through his golden eyes without feeling unsettled. She stood up unsteadily. Looking up, she saw that she had dropped the mangoes all around them, splayed out in a loose half-circle around where they had fallen. She stretched out an arm to the prince, who looked at her accusingly.

"I don't need any help," he said, beginning to push himself up.

"That isn't the point," she shrugged, arm still outstretched in front of him, "I can't lift you anyways; it's just supposed to be a friendly gesture."

He rolled his eyes but took her hand, standing up with a small tug from her. He then proceeded over to where his uncle sat, sitting down near the fire and half ignoring the man's rant about tea as Quin gathered the fruit and walked over as well.

"- and when prepared right," Iroh continued while sipping some of the leaf-juice, "It can make the strongest man weep tears of joy just to smell it!"

"Which tea?"? Quin asked as she placed the fruit in one of the saddlebags on the ground near the fire.

"Don't encourage him," Zuko hissed to her, but his uncle didn't notice and continued.

"The spice tea from a small Earth Kingdom village down on the coast," Iroh explained. "We passed through it a year ago when Prince Zuko was hunting the Avatar on his ship."

"You have a boat?" Quin asked, excited.

"Had. I had a boat," the prince muttered, still sore over the loss of his crew just a few weeks before.

"I've never seen the ocean before," she said, looking at him eagerly. "What's it like? Is it like that travelling bard says; a beautiful visage composed of blue as far as you can see?"

"It isn't that nice," he shrugged, looking confused at her sudden interest. "But I guess it is really big and really blue."

"Cool," she said with a smile. "Are you two going to travel near one, Sifu?"

"I'm not sure," the older man responded, stroking his beard. "I think that we're heading towards the dessert. Now, what's for dinner?"

Quin glanced over to Zuko, their eyes meeting uncomfortably for a second before she cleared her throat and turned back to the other man.

"Well, I got a few mangoes, but that isn't much of a dinner," she shrugged, before a splash in the nearby stream caused her to turn. Flying-trout were jumping down the river, their silver, wing-like fins and scales gleaming with the sinking sun. "And if I catch a fish I could maybe make fish stew."

Zuko snorted as the girl walked over to the side of the stream. "As if. Catching a fish is harder than it looks."

"My brother used to use earthbending to trap fish when we went to a lake near our town," Quin shrugged. "I'm sure you could use firebending to do it."

She walked over and crouched by the stream, looking down on the fish curiously. She remembered Sensu creating a box around the fish to catch it, but wasn't sure how to do it with fire. Placing a hand out over the water, she attempted to do the same. The water started to bubble in the area, though, and steam began to rise, alerting her to the fact that it wasn't working. She looked over at the fish curiously; there had to be a way to catch one without a rod or bait.

_Bait!_ She exclaimed to herself mentally. She quickly stretched one hand out over the water upside-down, creating a small flame that danced over the surface. She poised her other hand in a ready position to catch a fish as it jumped. It only took a few seconds for a fish to soar out of the water. It flew right through her splayed fingers and she groaned, leaning out a bit farther to catch the next one. A part of the muddy bank that she was kneeling on gave way beneath her, though, and she fell face-first into the shallow stream. She could hear Zuko chortling as she stood up in the slightly-over knee-deep water, soaked from head to toe. Her clothes were wet and slimy, and she attempted to look dignified as she tromped back over to the men and searched through Harvey's saddlebags for some clean clothes.

"Are you normally this uncordinated?" he asked with a snort.

"I'm not clumsy; the bank gave way," she retorted, grabbing a new shirt and pants out of the bag. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

Quin made her way through the woods, far enough that she couldn't see the camp but close enough that she could find her way back. She quickly slipped out of her wet clothes, pulling on a dark green tunic and light olive leggings. She fastened a brown belt around her waist and folded up the soggy clothes, reminding herself to leave them out to dry. As she moved back towards the camp, she heard a branch snap over to her right. She glanced over, but saw nothing. Slowly, she began backing up back to the camp, her arms outstretched in a basic firebending stance. She walked back next to the fire, laying out the clothes in a spot of sun as she left the woods.

* * *

As the three travelers set up camp, five pairs of eyes watched them through the trees. Each of the five men glanced at another as they slunk back through the forest so that they couldn't be heard when they discussed the people less than sixty yards away.

"Let's just jump 'em now," the explosives expert said to the rest of the Rough Riders, a Fire Nation militia group.

"Yeah," the spearman of the group agreed. "Get the reward for the traitors and –"

"And what are you suggesting we do with the girl?" the archer of the five weapons experts interrupted. "We can't keep her, and we can't just drop her off somewhere."

"We have another problem; General Iroh isn't going to come quietly either," Colonel Mongke said while scratching his chin. Though he was looked upon as the leader of the group, they treated each other as equals so to not make poor decisions on one man's judgment. "How about we use the girl as bait, corner 'em, then take her out to prove we mean business."

"We can't kill her, they'll fight back," the archer replied. "But if we take the girl to control them, we could manage to subdue them."

"I suppose, but when do you suggest we take her?" the chainmaster asked. "They'd all fight if we rode in there now."

"We wait until midnight," Colonel Mongke asserted. "Then we take the girl."

* * *

_Quin was lying on a plush green couch in a room filled with windows and fancy decorations, a small fruit tart of some kind in her hand. She examined it eagerly, never having seen something quite as delicate or fancy. The icing on the tan scone was a light pink, dusted with snowy white sugar arranged in the symbol of a flower. She grinned as she took a bite. The flavor was rich and sweet, tasting like the pure embodiment of something expensive._

"_Anything more, Miss?" a servant in green robes asked as she finished off the tart._

"_More of those please," she replied with a grin. The servant nodded and made to walk away, before the girl shivered. She looked back over at the man quickly. "And could you do something about the heat? It's freezing."_

The Earth Kingdom girl rolled over in her sleep, a slight smile on her dreaming face despite the coldness of the night. Zuko and Iroh were still awake, all of in their sleeping mats in circle around green-glowing coals.

"Uncle," Zuko said, turning to the older man, despite the small amount of pain that shot through his still-sore back. "Why does her bending do that? Azula bends blue flame, but it turns yellow after a while. "

"Quin's bending style is unique to her," the man replied sleepily, rolling so that his back was towards the flickering flames. "She draws her fire differently than you, or I, or even Azula herself, though I'm afraid I cannot tell you... how or... or why..."

"But -" Zuko was cut off by a large snore emanating from his uncle's mouth. The prince groaned and lay back down, glancing over to the girl. She shivered in her sleep, and Zuko noticed that the fire was dimming even more with the frostiness of the early-spring night, not to mention the crisp breeze and the chill in the air. Sighing, Zuko stretched out an arm so that it was almost touching the glowing coals before sending a burst of flame into the fire, spurring it back to life. It only stayed yellow for a few seconds before shifting to green, though, flaring up and down with her steady breathing.

"Why is her bending more powerful than mine?" he muttered to himself, almost irritated, before attempting to change the fire back to its original color. With a tiny bit of concentration he was able to shift the color back to yellow, but as soon as his focus waned the fire was taken back by the green hue. He snorted in disgust and rolled over, letting sleep claim him.

_Zuko was in the middle of a barn, animals hooting and sniffing and neighing all around him. He knew somehow that there was something that he had to do, but couldn't manage to figure out what it was. He looked around him and noticed that it was the Royal Stable near the palace. Confused, he spun, trying to find someone who knew what was going on and what he was supposed to be doing. After what felt like eons of standing in the center of the circular chamber, he felt his hands ball into fists with frustration._

"_What do you want me to do?" He asked thin air._

"_Stablehand!" a harsh voice said from behind him, and he turned. Admiral Zhao stood there, his mouth twisted into a cruel smile. He shot a few fireballs at the prince as he spoke. "Don't just stand there!"_

"_Yes, sir," Zuko stammered, not knowing why - but knowing that he couldn't - roast the admiral to a crisp. He saw a hallway that certainly wasn't there before appear in front of him and he began running down it, unsure of where it went, but sure that he needed to find whatever was at the end. As he continued walking the animals faded and it became a plain corridor, with muddy brown walls and an off-white tile floor. At last the hallway ended and he came to two large doors on either side of the dead end, one green and one red._

"_Aren't you going to open it?" he heard Azula's voice say from inside the red door. "Or are you too scared?"_

"_Well?" a familliar female voice asked, and he looked over to the green door. "You'll have to choose someday, Prince Zuko."_

_He turned to leave, for some reason not wanting to choose. As he did, though, he ran into a wall. He looked around and realized he was in a box made of metal, no escape but the two doors on either side. He walked toward the green one first, but was halted by his sister's voice._

"_I probably should mention, Zuzu; if you choose the wrong door, then you die."_

_Zuko turned and immediately pushed open the ruby door, being met by an army of Fire Nation soldiers, Azula at its head._

"_Oops. Wrong choice," she shrugged as he was drowned in flame, and he heard the voice behind the green door scream._

"Ach!" Zuko exclaimed upon waking, heart beating and a drop of sweat dripping down his forehead. He groaned and smacked his forehead, reminding himself that it was just a dream. He heard a slight rustle and looked up slightly, a flame ready to burst from his hand.

He was just in time to see a frightened, struggling Quin be dragged into the thick forest by two burly men.

* * *

**Dun-dun-duuuun!**

**Because who doesn't love cliffhangers?**

**Not super proud of this chapter, but it makes a good segway into my 'budding friendship' ark.**

**On a note of clarification: I inserted the dreams so that there could be point-of-comparison for the dreams in the future. They don't have that much significance besides the overall message; Quin, exposed to people of wealth, wonders what it would be like and Zuko, on the run from the country he still wants to return to, has a major conflict inside of him. No new news there.**

**Make sure to review and tune in next time for Chapter 4~ Escapes and Explanations~!**


	4. Escapes and Explanations

**So sorry that this is so late everyone! I got distracted with an overly time-consuming yet amazing British TV show (namely Doctor Who) and have finally finished up watching all of the Matt Smith episodes. So, I'm back and ready to roll!**

**This update's review goal is 7, for a total of 21. But, if we surpass **_**10**_** reviews, so 24 total, before noonon Sunday morning, then I'll throw in a special treat; an update before Monday. Yep, an update two weeks ahead of schedule. I mean, I've had the next chapter done forever since I'm so excited for it to be posted, but with very small incentive I'll post it early. So, keep that in mind and be sure to contribute!**

**I also began this chapter with a brief recap-like thingie, so it picks up from Quin's point of view a few minutes before the last chapter ended.**

**Oh, and for all you Americans out there, have a happy Thanksgiving! Don't eat yourselves into a coma, though.**

**I now present Chapter 4 – Escapes and Explanations**

* * *

Quin sighed in her sleep, a small smile still playing across her lips. She liked nothing better than a good dream, even when she knew that it was only an illusion. The castle she was exploring was large, as her mind kept inventing more hallways past every door. Her dream-self found, though, that a perfectly controlled dream wasn't that fun. She couldn't think of anything entertaining to do.

_Might as well wake up,_ she thought with a sigh.

Her eyes flickered open slightly as the dream evaporated. Light green, dancing flames played in front of her face. Though they took up the majority of her sight, through their flickering visage she could see the side of Zuko's face. He was wincing in his sleep, she noticed as she raised her head slightly, and the sudden urge to comfort her sleeping companion swept over her. Resisting, she closed her eyes, attempting to go back to sleep.

"Choose," she heard the soft murmur over the crackling flames. "Now… o…or…ne…ver…"

"Zuko?" She asked softly while looking up, wondering if he was awake as well. He didn't respond, though the wincing continued, and she laid her head back down on her sleeping mat. Half of her wondered what he was dreaming about, what could make someone who she thought was so strong look so… vulnerable. Quin couldn't help but study his face, as it looked so incredibly different without the presence of anger or annoyance. His scar stood out when he wasn't glaring at anything unfortunate enough to cross his path, and it looked so much more out of place with his angular face not curled into a scowl.

_I wonder how he got that,_ she thought to herself, her eyes moving over the marred, pink flesh. _Old Fon Rue said something about him getting it from his father, didn't he? How horrible. I wonder what he did to his dad to make him so angry._

_If Grandmother is any example, it might have just been existing._

The crack of a twig from right behind her broke her out of her reverie. Though she could barely hear it above Iroh's snoring and the loud fire, the small sound was still enough to make her start.

"Harv?" she asked, turning. Instead of the familiar brown eyes of her ostrich-horse, she saw two pairs of golden eyes glaring down at her. Before she could let out a shriek, a firm hand was planted over her mouth and another three were on tugging on her arms and pulling her upright. The position they held her arms in make it impossible for her to bend. As she struggled silently against the men dragging her into the forest, she got an idea. Not knowing what else to do, she bit down on the hand covering her mouth. The man yanked his hand away quickly, swearing as he shook it in the air.

"Zuko!" she yelled, knowing she only had a few seconds. She only had enough time for the one word before a hand returned to her mouth, but this time it was the other man. He was wearing thick gloves, rendering a secondary attack impossible.

"Come on, little lady," the man with the gloves growled, shoving her roughly into the woods. "If you play nice, we will too."

Quin glanced back at the camp, her eyes locking with Zuko's before she disappeared from sight.

* * *

Zuko looked at the spot they disappeared for a second in complete shock before he jumped up and shook Iroh's shoulder.

"Uncle!" he said sharply, but the man only rolled over in his sleep. Zuko quickly decided to follow the men without the aid of the older firebender, and raced off into the woods after them. He knew the general direction that they had headed in and raced off that way, his mind on full alert. He wasn't quite sure why he was so focused on finding her – after all, she was just an Earth Kingdom peasant with a talent she barely controlled, much less understood – but there was some inert drive demanding her safe return.

And anyways, he was never one to think things through _before_ he did them.

Zuko glanced around the forest, unsure of which direction he should go in, or what he would be facing when he found her. A few drunken men? A platoon of Earth Kingdom soldiers? An army? He saw a slight light shining through the trees and moved toward it carefully, his arms up in a ready stance. Whatever it was, he wasn't about to back down from a fight.

* * *

Iroh awoke with a start. Something was wrong and he could feel it. Orange flames spiraled in the fireplace, and he looked at them curiously. Orange…

"Quin?" he asked, sitting up. He suddenly realized that neither Quin nor Zuko were present. The old man sighed, looking at their messy sleeping bags and the multitude of footprints in the slightly frosty grass, all of them eventually leading into the forest. He let out half of a chuckle; he had no idea that Zuko had grown fond of Quin so quickly.

_Youth is wasted on the young,_ he thought with a smile, thinking about how he and his late wife, Shia, had been the same way growing up. Well, not exactly the same; Iroh had to admit that he was never even close to as turbulent as Zuko. His wife had been quite similar to Quin, however. They were vibrant, supportive, and quite impressive benders, though they didn't know it. Quin was slightly mellower, though. Shia had always been dragging Iroh into a crazy adventure, from the day they met in the royal ballrooms to the day that Lu Ten was born.

Iroh looked at the footprints in the frost again. They were clearly fresh, but there was something strange about them. With his slightly blurry, sleepy vision, though. he couldn't quite tell what. Rubbing his eyes with his hands, he cleared his sight and looked at them again. Though at first he didn't think much of the odd amount, the difference in size suddenly became clear. There were two sets of footprints from the forest into the clearing, both of them in men's shoes. Their return prints were different, though; they were walking much farther apart and there was an occasional impression in between their two sets. The footprints that were clearly Zuko's looked like they were sprinting; only pausing once by the older man's side. Whatever it was the two teenagers were doing, it was fairly unlikely that it was a normal romantic teenage romp.

Iroh stood up and stretched with a yawn. One – or both – of his pupils was in trouble, and he wasn't about to stand for that.

* * *

"Here she is, Colonel," one of the men said as the thrust Quin into the center of a camp. They had tied her arms together as well as a piece of cloth around her mouth, making it impossible for her to bend or talk. Not that she could hope to win a bending match anyway; five men surrounded her, each in armor that resembled the Fire Nation military uniforms. They were likely highly trained professionals, while she had less than an hour total of practice with an ex-general. She was outmatched, in more ways than one.

"Good work," a man with large metallic bracelets said with a nod. "Did she give you any trouble?"

"A bit, Colonel," the man who she had bitten replied with a look of potent irritation at her. "Nothing unmanageable."

"Put her over by the fire, and then come inside to discuss our next move," the Colonel said, pointing to a roaring fire before he and three other men walked into a large tent.

_How can I explain why the fire turns green?_ She asked herself as she was moved towards the flames. She felt the heat of the fire and saw its base begin to get a greenish hue. The man didn't seem to notice, however, and lifted up her arms, bound behind her back, to the point of extreme discomfort before letting go and turning away, just before the rest of the fire turned jade. She looked back to see what he had done and saw a tall metal stake, at least four feet high, in between her tied arms.

_Oh,_ she though with a sigh._ It makes it so I can't run off while they're gone._

The Earth Kingdom girl looked back in the direction her camp was in with a sigh, folding up her legs so she could sit down. The men had taken a winding route through the forest, likely throwing Zuko and Iroh off of her trail.

That is, if they were even looking.

She sighed, leaning back against the thick metal pole. She knew that to some degree, Zuko thought of her as an inconvenience. Probably to a very high degree. After all, she knew that she had kind-of just waltzed into his life with no warning or apology. Then again, he didn't necessarily hate her. Back at the farm, he had come back for her. But she hadn't intruded on his life yet, on the other hand.

_Why can't anything be simple,_ she wondered to herself with a shake of her head before she heard the small rustle of someone moving through the woods. Turning her head, she saw the disgruntled figure of Zuko, his face bathed in green light.

"What is it with you and getting tied to poles?" he asked quietly, and she could hear the slight annoyance in his voice as he approached. So he had come looking for her after all. She knew that it had sort of meaning, but couldn't think of what it was.

"It wasn't my fault this time," she insisted in a whisper, remembering the last time she was in a fairly similar situation.

Zuko only snorted in reply, and Quin saw him suppress a yawn with the back of his hand. Funny; she hadn't ever thought of the prince as the type to yawn, even occasionally. He crouched down beside the sitting girl, drawing the thin blade he had given to her just a week before. He slashed through the ropes binding her arms around the stake quickly and she stood up uneasily.

"I know that this is going to be hard for you, but try not to trip," he said quietly as he began walking back towards the forest. Quin hurried to match his long stride, disappearing into the woods just as the Rough Riders exited the tent. The five men looked at the empty post for a second before Colonel Mongke turned to his companions, an angry fire lighting his eyes.

"Find. Her. Now," he commanded, his voice frozen with rage. His soldiers all gave some sign of consent before scattering in opposite directions, running into the woods.

* * *

Quin ducked and weaved through the branches and around the undergrowth, attempting to duplicate Zuko's movements, being as silent and graceful as the prince. _Perhaps formal training was what made him so agile_, she thought to herself as she barely avoided falling over a stray root.

The forest was silent, much to her chagrin, making it easy for her to hear the rush of her breath as she moved, the soft, repetitive thud of Zuko's feet hitting the ground, and even the crack of a twig a few yards away.

_Wait…!_

She put a hand on Zuko's shoulder, causing him to turn. She put a finger to her lips before pointing in the direction that the noise had come from. Though they couldn't see what had created the sound, a soft light shone through the trees. The prince began moving forward towards the light, his arms lifted into a ready position. Quin followed cautiously, not knowing what they would find and fearing the worst. As they drew nearer, however, they noticed that a rotund stomach protruded from the silhouette, accompanied by a long beard.

"Uncle," Zuko said, and she noticed the tiniest hint of relief in his voice as he walked forward. Quin sighed, letting her anxiety evaporate. It was just her Sifu.

"Sorry I'm so late; I packed up camp in case we needed to make a clean getaway," the old man explained, pointing to the two fully loaded ostrich-horses behind him. Zuko nodded and mounted his ostrich-horse, Iroh instead getting atop Harvey. Quin, without thinking about what she was doing, got behind Zuko, wrapping her arms loosely around his waist as they all raced forward.

It wasn't until a few minutes later that she realized what she was doing, how _close_ she was to the scarred bender. A slight bit of color rose to her cheeks as recognized that her arms were encircling royalty – and not just any royalty, _enemy_ royalty. The crowned Prince of the Fire Nation. It seemed so horribly wrong, if she looked at it from her saner side. Of course, an only slightly less powerful part of her wanted nothing more than to hold him a slight bit tighter.

Quin barely refrained from shaking her head to rid herself of her thoughts, reminding herself horribly of a girl from her village who was attracted to anything that breathed, including Sensu. A grimace on her face, the Earth Kingdom girl loosened her grip on the prince. She wasn't about to become a flirt and start throwing herself at every person she met.

But then again, Zuko definitely wasn't just anyone.

* * *

The benders had been riding for a few hours before Iroh decided it was high time to rest. The ostrich-horse that was carrying him clearly needed a break as well; the older man had to admit that he wasn't the lightest load to carry for hours, not to mention the pots and pans and sleeping mats also adding to the weight.

"We've put some ground between us," he said as he slowed and dismounted. "Let's stop for the rest of the night."

"Okay," Quin said thankfully as Zuko pulled the reigns and stopped the beast beside Harvey and the Dragon of the West. She had nearly fallen asleep twice and wasn't particularly eager to fall asleep with her arms around Zuko in the hope that by avoiding the issue she could avoid yet another awkward hour or two.

The moon was still high in the sky as Quin laid out her sleeping bag and curled up inside, soaking in the warmth of a fire that Iroh breathed into a hastily constructed pit. Zuko seemed to be asleep before he hit the ground, his eyes relaxed and shut almost immediately. She didn't feel as tired though. Now that she actually had a place to rest, the need to sleep seemed to disappear like her breath in the cold night.

"Sifu Iroh," she said, looking at the older bender, who was in the process of finding the most comfortable position atop the dirt in his thin sleeping bag. "May I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead," he replied sleepily.

"If it's not impolite of me to ask, how did Prince Zuko get that scar?" she asked. Iroh sighed. He had known it would only be a matter of time before she asked. Everyone did, after a while. And so, though he truly wanted nothing more than to fall asleep, Iroh recounted the story to her. The general saw her expression shift from curious to awed to appalled to horrified as he continued speaking, recounting the fateful events of what was supposed to be naught but an average war meeting. After he was finished, Quin didn't speak; she couldn't bring her mouth to form words. Her mind, though bright for the little schooling that she received, wasn't able to comprehend why the Fire Lord could mar and banish his own son and still sleep at night. Though she knew virtually nothing about politics, there didn't seem to be any fault in speaking out of turn. In her family, everyone spoke out of turn, even her strict grandmother.

"That's horrible," she managed after a few more seconds of silence. Iroh nodded, his eyes drooping with tiredness.

"It was. Zuko has been questing to regain his honor and capture the Avatar ever since."

"The Avatar is alive?" she asked, surprised.

"For a few months, actually," he said, the darkness of sleep beginning to overtake him.

"Huh. I guess my village really is a year behind the rest of the world," she snorted. The old man had already fallen asleep, though, and his snores had begun. Quin placed her head on the ground, her eyes flickering over to Zuko. Sympathy crashed over her in a wave. She wanted to be able to do something for the scarred boy, even though she knew he wouldn't want her empathy. It would make him feel weak, she decided with a small smile, thinking of his obvious pride. No, she would keep her compassion quiet, but it didn't change that she felt it deep in her heart.

Sighing, Quin shifted and looked into the emerald flames. She could feel the warmth of the fire in her bones. It was so alive, so playful. She couldn't imagine it being used to do anything like what had it had done to Zuko, despite the fact a war was being raged with it. That was so sad, sick, even twisted.

"Anything I can do to help," she whispered to the sleeping boy, her mind caught halfway between sleep and waking. "Just say so."

Her vision faded to black, the last thing she saw being the pink scar across the left side of the Prince's face.

* * *

**Wow. I meant to get so much more done in that chapter. I guess I'll have to add some more to the next one. ****Not incredebly proud of the turn-out as far as the ending goes, but I think that I'll eventually get to the point where I adore what I'm writing.**

**So, you all remember: 7 reviews is the goal, and since we've made goal pretty much every week so far, it doesn't seem that unrealistic because of the amount of people that have expressed their support for the story(Looking at you, favoriters). Bu, as a special beginning-of-holiday-spirit treat, if I get 10 total reviews on this chapter by noon on Sunday, I'll throw in an extra chapter by that evening. **

**Also, to give you even more incentive to review, I almost always check out my reviewers profiles and stories, often reviewing them, so it's a two way street.**

**Happy Holidays, and tune in next time for Chapter 5 ~The Lotus's Leftovers, in which Iroh devises a plot and plays a few games of Pai Sho.**


	5. The Lotus's Leftovers: The Master's Plot

**Sorry this is late… again. I intended to post it way sooner, but family, tests, temperamental computers, and holidays got in the way.**

**By the way, I hope you all had a happy Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanza/New Years/Winter Sabbath/End of the World/Solstice. Or whatever else you celebrate. I can't read your mind.**

**So, I have many things in store for you in this two-chapter mini- arc (is it arc or ark? I can never remember…) but there's dreams, bonding, Pai Sho, and the explanation behind the necklace that I forgot to lace into the last chapter. In the future, it's probably going to be important, though I have a few ideas on how it's going to play a role throughout the story. Yay plot devices!**

**One small note regarding content and next chapter: I originally intended for next chapter to be its own little arc all about firebending practice and emotional bonding and all that good stuff, but, as I rewrote this one… many times… I kept adding little bits here and there to this chapter. And I suddenly, realized that it had become over 5,000 words long (not including this long-ass AN). So, in lieu of the ungodly long, format-breaking mini-arc, I'm dividing it two chapters. I'm still working on the next chapter, since it's a bit short of my average goal of about 3,000+ words. It'll be out soon, probably, but I MAKE NO PROMISES!**

**Also, I'd like to point out something important, since I feel like it's been unclear. When Zuko has been thinking about Quin's bending, especially in this & the last chapter, it's just his assumption that her colored fire makes her strong, like Azula. It's covered a bit in this and the next chapter, but I just wanted to point out that her bending is actually much weaker than his, to make sure it doesn't sound like her bending is ultrapowerful and stuff.**

**Another important note, but not super important: I have a few ideas for some Harry Potter fanfictions that I want to post sometime in April/May, but I only really want to do one fanfic per fandom at once. Therefore, I'm not really going to make the decision; I'm going to let you. I have the summaries in the 'Which HP Story do You Want to See?' poll on my profile page, and I'd really appreciate if you'd take a few seconds to vote on which one you'd like me to post. **

**And now without further ado, I present to you Chapter Five: The Lotus's Leftovers Part 1: the Hoax. Make sure to review!**

* * *

_Quin was lost, which was a surprisingly rare feat. She could usually find places, despite the fact that she tripped over anything between it and herself. But she truly had no idea where she was, besides the fact that she was in a forest clearing of some sort. And that she was scared, though she wasn't sure why._

_She spun in a circle, glancing in-between the trees for a road or path or something she could get her bearings from. None were to be found, and she sighed and sat down on the grass. A branch snapped behind her, and she turned, fear gripping her chest. A man was leering down at her, his pointed teeth inches from her face. She scurried backwards, only to run into a net, which swooped her up to be hanging from a tree helplessly._

"_There's a good lil' sweetheart," the man said, his face tilted up at her with a sneer. Suddenly, his pointed nose started to shift back into his round face, his chin elongating and becoming more angular. White hair suddenly replaced his brown crew cut, his eyes changing from red to a hard green._

"_G-Grandmother?" Quin asked quietly, looking at the woman now standing beneath her._

"_You're no relative of mine," came the standard hiss, the woman earthbending an abyss beneath the girl. "You're a disgrace. You're an abomination. You're a _firebug."

_Quin winced as the woman used the term 'firebug'. It was an old name in her village for the firebenders, and was usually used with so much venom that even someone without any knowledge of the term's history was able to decipher that it was a horrible insult._

"_Please, it isn't my fault," she pleaded desperately, looking into the empty hole beneath her. "Let me down."_

"_No," the woman said coldly. "You have _his_ fire-stained blood in your veins. You must be purged."`_

_The net gave way, sending Quin tumbling into the darkness , seeing the light above her fade into a tiny speck. _

"_Sorry," she murmured before the bottom of the cavern rushed up at her._

Quin awoke with nothing short of a scream. Her heart was pounding so loud it drowned out all other sounds, her forehead cold with sweat. It took her a few seconds to realize where she was; camping in the near-dessert with a loudly-snoring general and a very, very annoyed looking prince whom she had awoken a few feet away, propped up on one elbow and glaring at her sulkily as the moon hit what she assumed was about one or two in the morning.

"Sorry," she said, flushing in embarrassment. "Bad dream."

The prince continued his glare before rolling not-quite-gracefully onto his other side to fall back asleep. She sighed and rolled onto her side, hoping for sleep to claim her again as well. Of course, nightmares didn't usually provide tranquil thoughts. She laid awake, her mind racing back and forth between her dream and the real world for what she was sure was an hour before sitting up and stretching out her arms above her head. She was just over-tired, she thought to herself as she curled up in a tight ball, burying her eyes beneath her sleeping-bag's thin covers. That was why she was having that nightmare again. She yawned, feeling the lull of sleep pull her back under.

_I'm fine,_ she reassured herself easily as sleep claimed her. _Nothing's wrong._

* * *

Quin yawned slightly as she clutched Zuko's waist. The three companions had slept far past noon, though it seemed that it was restless sleep for all of them, and they were travelling over bumpy desert terrain. Riding an ostrich-horse was never comfortable, but riding on the back of an ostrich horse over sand and rock was almost unbearable. Harvey jumped up as he ran to clear a dead bush and she gritted her teeth as the impact jarred her tailbone.

At least the benefits made up for it.

The desert scenery was beautiful; sprawling waves of golden sand shifting in the wind under a clashing blue sky. Gold was her favorite color, after all. It was so…rich, so beautiful, like the sun setting over the horizon in midsummer. An occasional small animal scurried in front of them, always squeaking in some adorable way as Zuko sent it a fierce glare. He was the second reason for her slight liking of travelling by ostrich-horse.

Though she assured herself that it just made sense for her and Zuko to be on one ostrich-horse while Uncle was on the other, namely to prevent one of the animals from collapsing under the weight, a part of her enjoyed being so close to the prince. His body was slightly colder than hers, as her temperature was slightly warmer than even the average firebender's, which was a nice change from the heat, though he probably was less fond of the warmth radiating from her. He also smelled of ash and pine trees.

Needless to say, it worked on him.

"Uncle," he called out over the wind to the man riding ahead of them. "Where are we going?"

"I have an old friend I think we should visit," he replied. "It isn't too much farther."

Zuko gave a slight nod, his hair tickling the side of Quin's face. She bit her lip to keep from laughing or saying something she would regret, each of them likely possibilities. And, as Harvey swerved to avoid a cactus in the middle of the road, nearly throwing her off of his back, she really hoped that the ride would be over soon.

* * *

The three travelers rode into the small village at around dusk, and Quin couldn't suppress a slight smile. The town was about the same size and type as her home. She saw a few small taverns, street vendors, even sandbenders. Looking at the way that they were standing, they instantly reminded her of the soldiers in her village; cocky and dominant.

Iroh lead them to the largest of the few taverns before dismounting and tying the ostrich-horses to a small railing outside. Quin and Zuko followed suit, walking inside behind the man.

"What are we doing in a seedy bar? No one here's going to help us," Zuko said with a scowl.

"Never underestimate what a friend can do to help in a time of need," the old man replied, making a beeline for a Pai Sho table in the back of the room. Quin looked at it excitedly; she had always wanted to learn how to play the ancient game, but never had the board or pieces to be able to.

"You brought us here to gamble on Pai Sho?" Zuko asked incredulously as the firebender sat down across from another aging man.

"I don't believe that this is a gamble," Iroh replied before turning to his competitor. "May I have this game?"

"Of course. Guest has the first move."

Iroh placed a tile with a white lotus flower on it in the center of the board. Quin looked at it, interested, as Zuko pulled a chair over for himself.

"The white lotus gambit," Iroh's competitor observed. "Not many still cling to the old ways."

"Those who do can always find a friend," Iroh replied and the two men bowed.

"Then let us play."

Zuko and Quin watched, the former uninterested and the latter enraptured, as the two men began placing specific tiles in very specific places, both working from opposite sides of the board. As the shape was completed, Quin noticed that it was in the shape of the same flower that was on the center tile.

"Welcome, Brother," the man said, bowing again. "The White Lotus opens its petals wide for those who know its secrets."

"What are you old gasbags even talking about?" Zuko asked, clearly annoyed at not knowing what was going on.

"I always tried to tell you that Pai Sho was more than just a game," Iroh replied with a slight smile before flipping a tile into the air. "I hate to barge in on your organization, but my students and I need a sanctuary."

"It would be my honor."

"What's going on?" Quin muttered to Zuko, who made an almost imperceptible noise of annoyance.

"Come, Quin, Lee," Iroh said to the two teenagers, standing up along with the other . "We are leaving."

"Where?" Zuko asked, irritated.

"You'll see."

The four exited the building and walked along through the town's winding streets in silence before the man ushered them into a small flower shop.

"It is an honor to welcome such a high ranking member of the White Lotus," he said, bowing to Iroh as soon as the door was closed. "Being a grand master, you must know so many secrets."

"Now that you've played Pai Sho, are you going to do some flower-arranging, or is someone in this club going to offer some real help?" Zuko asked, in his standard demanding tone.

"You must forgive my nephew," Iroh said. "He is not a member and has little appreciation for the cryptic arts."

"And your other pupil?" he asked, looking at Quin.

"She shows much promise, though she is like a flower-bud in early spring; though her potential is great, I cannot know how magnificent her petals appear until she is in full bloom" Iroh replied. The man nodded and knocked upon a locked door at the end of the room. Zuko looked at his uncle skeptically, mouthing 'flower bud?' to the older man as Quin blushed at the compliment, or, at least, she was fairly sure it was a compliment.

"Who knocks at the guarded gate?" a man asked from the other side after pulling open a sliding section of the door.

"One who has eaten the fruit and tasted her mysteries," Iroh said softly and the door swung open, letting the two elderly men in. Quin glanced up and caught a glimpse of a Pai Sho table behind the door before it was slammed shut in Zuko's face.

"I'm afraid it is members only in here," Iroh explained, looking through the small window. "You two should make yourselves comfortable, it might be a while."

With that, the sliding panel closed, and the two teenagers were left alone. Quin leaned against a pillar outside the door on one side of the room, Zuko doing the same on the opposite side. Five minutes passed in silence, both firebenders sure that their mentor would be out any second.

After the next five minutes, Quin began to feel uneasy. She didn't like the complete silence, the stillness of the air, the unchanging expression on Zuko's face as he stared at a flower, as if willing it to move. She sighed and sat down, wondering what Iroh could possibly be doing.

* * *

Iroh sat inside the circular room, looking at the Pai Sho game in deep concentration. He was playing with the two other members of the White Lotus and winning by just a hair.

"Sir," the youngest member addressed him. "With all due respect, we decided on a course of action for you and your pupils fifteen minutes ago. Shouldn't you tell them what they're going to do?"

"Ah, Mau," the general said to the young man, a twinkle in his amber eyes. "I would, but I think that my students could bear to spend a bit of time together. They don't get an opportunity to talk without an old man lurking around very often, after all."

"So they get along?" the older man who had played with Iroh earlier, named Renn, asked. "The girl seemed far less confrontational than your nephew."

Iroh laughed slightly, looking at the door. "They mellow each other out very well. Though I've only given her one true lesson, it is clear that Quin has problems with firebending because of her control. She treats fire like earth; controlling it finitely while bending, yet neglecting control when she isn't. She also hasn't found the source of her bending yet, which would give her the power she needs. Zuko, on the other hand, uses more control than when he bends just to stop himself from shoving unfortunate souls out of his way. Zuko gives his bending too much power, since he uses his emotions, and loses all control. I believe that they can learn quite a lot from each other if they put their minds to it."

"I see," Mau said, nodding. "And without you, they'll be more likely to speak to one another?"

"I do hope so."

"So I take it you'll want a rematch?" Renn smiled.

"Perhaps a few rematches. A friendship doesn't blossom in just an hour, after all."

* * *

Zuko groaned in exasperation. It had been at least half an hour of waiting in a flower shop, and patience was never his strong suit. He took two strides toward the door and knocked on it furiously.

"What in the name of Agni are you doing in there?!" he yelled at the door. The small wooden panel slid open, revealing Uncle's eyes.

"Sorry, Prince Zuko, but it will take a while. There are some very strict guidelines that have to be adhered to."

"But _how long_ until we can _leave_ this dump?"

"A few hours at the least, though we might have to stay all night," Iroh replied before sliding the panel shut.

"What?!" Zuko asked angrily, a small plant nearby bursting into flames. It was next to Quin, and turned green a few seconds after Zuko returned to his pillar and began ignoring it, sulkier than ever. He glared at the Earth Kingdom girl as he noticed it was green. "Would you stop doing that already?"

"Stop doing what?" she asked, not noticing that the fire had turned her signature shade of vibrant emerald as she picked at the loose threads on her long-sleeved tunic.

"That!" he yelled, pointing over to the bright green fire engulfing the small plant.

"What am I supposed to do about it?" she asked, looking at him in confusion. "It's your fault for setting on fire right in front of me!"

"So it's _my_ fault that you turned it green?"

"It's _your_ fault that the fire's even _there_!"

The two benders glared at each other for a second, the intensity of the green fire almost blasting up to the earthen ceiling with the surge of emotions from both of the benders. Quin broke the stare first, feeling her heart was about to thud out of her chest from looking into his eyes for too long. She groaned inwardly at her emotions. There wasn't even any logic around them, no reason to like the prince, even consider running away fromj a perfectly fine house for him – besides, perhaps, his impressive physique and breathtaking eyes.

As Quin thought, the door opened and a man slipped out. He was young, perhaps in his early thirties, and looked at Quin and Zuko with an air of authority.

"I have been asked to bring you two something to eat. Do you have any preferences?" he asked.

"No, sir," Quin replied. Zuko merely gave a slight shake of his head before the man disappeared out the front door of the flower shop. Silence fell between the two teenagers once again though the fire had gone out, leaving only a smoking plant behind. Quin sighed and sat down, her legs tired of standing.

"So," she said after a second of silence. "What do you want to talk about?"

Zuko gave her a look that screamed 'what are you, crazy?' and she sighed.

"It's better to have some conversation than to sit here in silence for the next few hours," she explained. "We might as well try to find some common ground."

The prince rolled his eyes but sat down as well, one leg outstretched towards the middle of the room and the other tucked in closer to his chest. "Fine."

The silence persisted for a few awkward seconds before Quin bit down on her lip and shook her head. Somehow, she had imagined conversation with Zuko to be slightly easier. Her imagination must hate her.

"What's your favorite color?" she asked, unable to think of a better question. Zuko looked at her skeptically for a second, though he suddenly realized that no one had ever asked him that before. After all, being the prince of the Fire Nation, it would clearly be red, wouldn't it?

"Orange," he responded after a few seconds of consideration. "And you?"

Just as her tongue began to form the word 'gold' she remembered with a start that it was the color of the prince's eyes. The eyes that she had been admiring for the last few days. She swore inwardly before quickly changing her answer to a color that she didn't hate, but wasn't anything even close to related to his eyes.

"Crimson," she said, and Zuko raised an eyebrow. He could have sworn that it was green, the color of literally everything she wore, her eyes, and even her firebending. As he thought, Quin bit down on her tongue in frustration. She had been so focused on answering, but not answering gold, that she had managed to use the color of his _scar. _The girl from the middle of a country full of green everything liking crimson, which happened to be the color of the blatantly obvious wound on the side of his face. Smooth.

"Why?" he asked, unable to resist. She deduced from his not-as-annoyed-as-usual tone that he didn't think she meant it personally. _Good, since if he did, that would be awkward, _she reassured herself._ Even though I _didn't_ say that because of his scar. Not at all. Just the first color to pop into my head._

"Because I hardly ever get to see it," she replied truthfully with a shrug. "Everything around my house was brown or green or blue, all my clothes were brown and green and yellow; it's all so monotone and flat. Then, during some sunsets, the entire sky lights up in this amazing bright red. It's so unique and beautiful."

"You should see the Fire Nation," Zuko snorted. "You can't walk a block without seeing something bright red."

"What's the Fire Nation like?" Quin asked, leaning back against the pillar more. "I've heard a lot about it, but I don't think that it's all true."

"What did you hear?"

"Nothing much, just some rumors."

_Of streets littered with corpses and temples where the war prisoners are sacrificed to Agni_, she added mentally, not daring to say it to the man's face.

"It's pretty nice," Zuko said, shrugging. "Better than this place for sure."

"I dunno, I kinda like this town."

"Why?"

"It reminds me of home," Quin said with a slightly sad smile. "Small, quaint, run by tyrants. Pretty grimy, though. At least my town was clean."

Zuko let out a snort of amusement and Quin smiled to herself, surprised that she could make him laugh – well, as close to laugh as she had ever seen. His face took on a slightly more serious quality afterwards, though.

"Why did you leave?" he asked. She sighed and looked down, her green eyes stirred with emotions.

"I don't know," she replied honestly, tracing her finger in the dirt as she spoke. "I just felt like I had to, you know? Like I couldn't even consider staying, because if I did, something would go horribly wrong."

"Destiny," Zuko said softly, and she looked up inquisitively. "It's something Uncle always talks about."

"I wish I had an uncle like Sifu Iroh," she said. "The only family member I even relate to is my brother, and I haven't been able to talk to him for months."

"Sorry," Zuko said, unsure of how to respond.

"I don't blame you," she said, looking up with a smile. "You don't have to apologize. Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"A younger sister," Zuko replied, a slight scowl forming on his face as he thought of Azula. "We aren't exactly close, though."

"I guess it's a bit harder to be siblings when there's a country on the line," Quin said with a small shrug. "All Sensu and I could fight over was who got the seat farthest from Grandmother during dinner."

"Your grandmother lived with you?" Zuko asked, not remembering an elderly woman at the homestead.

"She caught the flu a few days before you visited, so she took the younger ostrich-horse, Mifi, and went a few villages over to get a doctor," Quin replied. "She was on her way back the afternoon that I left."

The door to the flower shop opened again and the thirty-something man walked back inside, carrying four plates full of food and a pitcher of water.

"I hope that this will do; it's from one of the Brother's taverns," he said, setting the food down in between the two teenagers, giving them a small bow, before slipping through the large door. Each of the four plates contained a different type of food; the first was some sort of meat, the second contained fruit, the third vegetables, and the fourth what looked like a large, deep-fried beetle.

After a shared look of disgust, the two firebenders shoved the beetle dish away from the other food, towards the White Lotus's door.

Quin moved towards the prince, sitting down to take the dish of fruits that was closest to him. Zuko picked up the plate full of meat, half wondering what type it was, before taking a bite of one of the pig-chicken-thigh shaped pieces. The meat was tough and dry, not the rich, juicy type he had gotten used to in the Fire Nation. Quin snatched a piece off the plate and took a large bite, Zuko looking at her in surprise. None of the girls he had met in his time in the Fire Nation – searching for the Avatar provided surprisingly few dating opportunities – had ever eaten like that. They ate daintily, and he fondly remembered Mai only taking a single bite of each type of food on her already sparse plate before declaring herself full.

"What?" she asked after swallowing, seeing his look.

"Nothing," he replied, returning to his own meal.

No man in the Fire Nation would never dare to question the Prince, no matter the reason. Yet, some country girl would, and would even ask him something as pointless as what his favorite color was without a second thought.

She was definitely different than anything Zuko had been near before.

But, even so, he found himself almost… _enjoying_ her company.

That was new.

* * *

**Okay, so, that's it for this week. I make no promises about the next update, but I hope for soon. Necklace in the next chapter, I swear ^.^' .**

**Sorry about the lame Xin Fu/Yu deletion. I was feeling lazy and didn't want to write them. Pluus they wouldn't fit with Iroh's stay-inside-flowershop-as-long-as-possible plan. Eh, who cares anyways; they weren't even supporting cast.**

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**Thanks for reading!**


	6. The Lotus's Leftovers: The Necklace

**So, I was going to update sooner, but I got a review that made me go over this a couple of times.**

**Recently I got a review (Thank you for all of them, by the way! ^.^) that said, to paraphrase, that Quin is a sub-standard OC character and though my style is alright, my story is… boring and stuff. And though personally, I've been starting to agree with her, I want to know what my other readers think, since one person in a crowd yelling, 'Boo!' shouldn't make me question myself so thoroughly. So please, leave your thoughts in a review when you get to the bottom of the page, I'd really appreciate it.**

**I think that's all. Enjoy!, even though this chapter is just a super-long conversation.**

* * *

Quin stretched out slightly, glad to have food in her empty stomach. She had been running on empty virtually since she had left the village, and with all of the food and drink that she had been provided with was more than welcome. She glanced over at the prince sitting next to her, who was looking with detectable contempt at the fruit in his hand. It felt like a small insult to the country girl; though unintentional, for him to so blatantly look down on something she found to be better than most of the food in her village and certainly something expensive in this one. She shook her head imperceptibly with a sigh she hoped he couldn't hear. _It must be pretty bad compared to the food that would be served to royalty, _she decided. _He doesn't mean for it to be offensive to me._

_ Since when did I start coming up with excuses _for_ him?_

A small yawn escaped her lips, disrupting the silence of the room, before she could silence it. It caused Zuko to glance over at her as if he had forgotten she was there.

"Sorry," she apologized immediately, not entirely sure what she was sorry for.

"What for?" Zuko asked as if reading her thoughts, glancing over with slightly bored curiosity.

"Never mind," she replied. The silence persisted for another second, making Quin uneasy yet again. She decided to break it. "So what's it like, being royalty?"

"Huh?" The question seemed to catch Zuko off-guard, and he took a second before responding. "It isn't as great as you think."

"Still…" Quin trailed off, her mind filled with images of palaces and attendants, sprawling feasts and rooms the size of houses. At the prince's slight scowl, she amended "I guess the politics must be a pain, though."

"You have no idea," Zuko almost snorted. "When I was younger, I had to take hours of classes on the political workings of the Fire Nation every day."

Quin almost cocked her head to the side as he mentioned the Fire Nation's legal system. She had always imagined the country as a land of chaos and gore, where soldiers marched through the streets and families cowered behind closed windows. She hadn't really ever thought of it having its own complex government. The Fire Lord himself had always been in her head as a faceless denizen of an inferno, and that image, now that she thought about it, had stayed the same if not worsened when she met Zuko.

"Why do you trust me?"

Zuko's question surprised her, almost as sudden and unexpected as hers.

"Come again?" she asked.

"I'm the prince of an enemy nation, and so far, people haven't been too glad to find that out," he said, glancing away as if remembering her village. "What makes you trust me?"

Quin stayed silent for a second. She didn't really know the answer to that. It was just something that she innately _did_.

"You didn't give me a reason not to – well, besides that you're Fire Nation, but I guess that in a way, I am too, what with my Grandpa. I felt– feel –like I can," she shrugged, feeling like her answer was true to her heart. He nodded, but still looked at her curiously nonetheless _She's so naïve,_ Zuko thought to himself. _Does she seriously trust me simply because I haven't given her a reason not to?_

"So, while we're on the topic of asking each other personal questions," she began, looking away awkwardly. "Why did you keep that necklace I gave you when you left?"

"This?" Zuko asked, looking down to see the charm on the thin chain around his neck. "Because it's my great-grandfather Sozin's necklace."

"What?" Quin asked, thoroughly confused. "An old family friend of mine had it, it couldn't be worth anything."

"Well, it's been lost for a century. Haven't you heard the tale of the colonies' lost treasure?"

"Bedtime stories in my village are a bit more dated than that," she said with a light shrug, turning so that she faced the prince. "Mind filling me in?"

"It starts right before the war. Fire Lord Sozin had just gotten a foothold in the Earth Kingdom with his very first colony. The Earth Kingdom was panicking, wondering what they could possibly do to stop us. So, the King had his finest benders craft golden trinkets and charms as a peace offering. They slaved over them for weeks. Fourteen chests of gold and precious stones were crammed into a caravan of diplomats, an ambassador at their head, as they began the journey from Ba Sing Se to the first colony. Along the way, they were robbed by bandits and sandbenders, so by the time they arrived at the colony, they had only one chest to present to the Fire Lord. They waited outside the gates, and the Fire Lord walked down from his makeshift palace to meet them, escorted by seven-score imperial firebenders. The ambassador was so nervous that he almost choked on his words as he presented our ruler with the single chest. Sozin opened the lid to the chest and picked up a yin and yang necklace; the yin of emerald and the yang of pure ruby. He looked at the pitiful ambassador and his assistants, and told them that if the Earth King could send no one who could hold their sacred treasure for more than a few weeks without losing it to their own people, he would be doing them a favor to introduce the rule of the Fire Nation. With that, he threw the necklace to the ground and dug it into the dirt with his heel, and the diplomats became the first casualties of the Hundred Year War," Zuko said, before shrugging at Quin's shocked face. "Or at least, that's how the old story goes."

"So that necklace is the one from all those years ago?"

"I think so," Zuko said. "It has a certain… feel, to it."

"Whoa," she said, looking at it more carefully. "Hui said that he found it from a trader in the colonies, but he didn't think it was worth anything either. The other man just got rid of it!"

"Well, it's supposed to be cursed or something," Zuko said nonchalantly. Quin wheeled backwards and he rolled his eyes. "You don't actually believe in that junk, do you?"

"N-no, of course not," she stammered. "Out of curiosity, what is it supposed to be cursed by?"

"There's a legend in the Fire Nation that says its wearer will be torn between the two kingdoms or something. It isn't like it's true or anything."

"R-right." Quin bit down on her lip. She had been raised on the superstitions and legends of an old, isolated town. Though the Earth Kingdom's residents weren't very spiritual in their set, stubborn ways, spirits roamed around the countryside and were respected, especially in the most isolated areas. In fact, whenever a fire had turned inexplicably green in the village, the people had assumed that it was an angry firebending master's soul lurking around the premises. Though it was clear Zuko thought the idea of curses and jinxes was annoyingly simplistic, she couldn't help but think otherwise.

"What?" he asked as she continued to stare at the necklace.

"Nothing," she said quickly. "Nothing at all."

"You do think it's cursed, don't you?" he asked, sending her an almost disapproving look.

"They exist," she said, hoping to defend herself suitably. "I knew a girl who was cursed!"

"Right," Zuko said with a small snort.

"I did! And if that necklace is cursed, you really shouldn't wear it!" She said nervously. "I mean, curses are really tricky things! They're usually meant for a certain person, and if they get the wrong one, then it'll amend its meaning to suit them! You never know that they're going to mean once you get them!"

Zuko only raised his eyebrow in response.

"What if it is cursed?" she asked, hoping for him to see her side of the argument.

"It isn't. Because curses _don't exist_." He countered, casting a bone from the meat he had just finished across the room.

"Of course they do! Don't you have spirits in the Fire Nation?"

"Yeah, but they leave us alone and we leave them alone. They don't intrude on our lives."

"Well, things work differently in the Earth Kingdom. Spirits here are a bit more personal. They like to bug people, and you're wearing a necklace that I would bet my bending has some form of a hex on it."

"You would bet your bending on this? You really take it for granted, don't you?" he asked, the slightest tint of anger building in him. She could firebend like Azula, a _prodigy_, and she would say something like that? She would mention losing it so off-handedly? Who did she think she was?

"No, I didn't mean it like-"

"Then how did you mean it?!" Zuko's face had twisted into a snarl.

"It was just a figure of spirit-damn speech!" she yelled in return, confused at his immediate change of mood and almost angry at his overreaction to what she thought was just a basic idiom. Her demeanor calmed from her initial defending stance as she saw him look at her in surprise. She sighed and continued in a slightly more civil voice. "It's an old saying in my village. You shouldn't take it personally or anything."

"… Sorry," he muttered under his breath, unaccustomed to the word on his lips and half-wondering why it had slipped out.

"Why did you assume I meant it as an insult?" Quin asked hesitantly, after a beat of silence. "Is bending looked at differently in the Fire Nation? I didn't mean to be offensive to your culture or anything."

"It's nothing."

"It has to be something," she said curiously, her head cocked to the side. Zuko noted that she reminded him of a baby messenger-hawk, her hair the same shade of dark auburn as its wings as she looked at him with a childlike desire to learn about his heritage. "And if we're going to be traveling together for a while, I want to know what's going to offend you."

"My sister… bends like you do, but blue," he said. He didn't want to elaborate, but he added onto the end, a trace of left-over bitterness in his voice, "When she says something like that, she means it."

"Oh," Quin said. The tone in which he spoke easily displayed his closed nature on the topic. She knew that Zuko didn't want to say anything more to her, but before she could stop herself from asking, "Blue fire?"

"Yeah," Zuko responded sulkily, recognizing the way that the conversation was going.

"Is it just really hot or something?" she asked curiously. "Or is it… like mine?"

"Like yours." He said decisively, hoping that she wouldn't ask for anything that required elaboration. It wasn't his favorite post-dinner conversation.

"Is that type of thing common in the Fire Nation?"

"No."

"Really?" she asked, her face looking like it was sinking into a puddle. Zuko glanced over at her, unwillingly curious and confused. Why was she upset that her bending was unique?

"Yeah," he said. "Why does it matter?"

"Well, it's just that I thought that in the Fire Nation, everybody bent like that. Or at least, more people," she was clearly upset with the notion that she bent differently. "And that if I went to the colonies someday, that I wouldn't stick out so much."

"But you didn't even bend back in your village," Zuko reasoned. "How could you stick out there? You seemed plain to me."

She barely took it into an account as an insult when she responded. "I didn't have to actually bend in front of them. Being a firebender… it's just different than being an earthbender. It's a different way of going about things; it's being so much more careful in public, it's avoiding going to people's houses after dark or for dinner, it's not understanding that all of the earth-types and bending moves that my brother tried to teach me to do with flame, because fire doesn't work like rock. I thought that to other firebenders, I might just be a variation," she said, staring down at the floor instead of at the boy next to her. "Not an outcast."

"Azula definitely isn't an outcast," Zuko muttered sourly.

"Your sister?"

"Yeah. The pride and joy of the Fire Nation," his voice was sarcastic and bitter as the conversation shifted tone. "She's never had to deal with feeling unwanted."

"Why did you?" Quin asked, cursing herself out internally as the words formed. Why couldn't she learn control what she said? "I just mean, since you're prince and all, wouldn't you two be treated similarly?"

"It doesn't exactly work like that."

Quin was able to stop herself from making out a question at the prince's perceived dislike of the topic. But at the same time, she felt like she needed to say something to assure him that she knew what he was talking about, on a similar level. "My grandmother felt that way about my brother," she blurted.

"Mm?"

"She was an earthbender too, and since I'm… not, she wasn't exactly thrilled about it," she said, regretting saying anything. She felt like she was trying to one-up him or something, trying to degrade what he must've went through, by providing details from her own past. She tried to remove the impact of her phrase – though she was fairly sure that there wasn't one to the prince. "Sensu didn't take pride in it or anything, though."

"What's the war like to you?" Zuko asked after a second of silence. The question had been nagging at him since she had shown up next to him a few mornings prior. Most Earth Kingdom citizens hated the war and all Fire-Nation citizens by extension, her village included. But she had no problem with him, treated him like anyone else. Was it naivety, or philosophy?

"The war?" she asked, before letting out a timid laugh. "It didn't mean that much, for a long time. I mean, the protection-soldiers were terrible, but when I was little I thought that they were the Fire Nation. I couldn't imagine worse people, no matter how much my mother and grandmother told me how awful they were. So I just thought that they must be like the soldiers in the village; just like our people. After all, people are people, right? It's not like being a firebender makes someone a bad person. If I believed that all firebenders were evil like my neighbors, then who would_ I_ be?" she let out a sigh. "But Sensu left for war against them. I don't blame him or anything; he had a lot stronger views on the matter than I did. But now that he's captured, I don't know what to think about the war." She paused before continuing with a curious, "What's it like for you?"

"I…" Zuko trailed off. He hadn't really given the war much thought since he had been banished. It was all secondary to the search for the Avatar. He kept up on information, of course, but it had never really played into his obsessive hunt. "I don't have an opinion on it."

"Hm," she hummed before teasing lightly, "I would have thought that the 'crown prince and heir to the throne' would have some thoughts on the century-long war his country instigated."

"I've been thinking about more important things recently."

"Like what?"

"The Avatar."

"Oh, right, you're hunting him," she nodded, ignoring his surprise at her knowledge on the subject. "What's he like?"

"How do you-"

"Your uncle told me," she replied. "Is he an airbender, or an old waterbender that was born after the genocide?"

"Airbender."

"Whoa," she said, her eyebrows all but disappearing into her bangs. "And you're trying to track him down? He must be a master bender in all of the disciples by now."

"You could say that…" Zuko said, gritting his teeth. There was no way in the deepest depths of the Spirit World that he was going to tell her that he had been chasing – and failing to capture – the twelve year old that was somehow the Avatar. That would just be degrading.

"Spirits; are you crazy?" she asked, looking to Zuko like she was legitimately concerned. "You're going after a _master bender_ alone?! You couldn't possibly win!"

"I have a reason to," he said, his face hardening. "Considering what he's done for the world in the last hundred years, he doesn't."

Quin was about to refute his statement, hopefully in some clever way, but a large yawn tore through the beginning of her sentence. She leaned against the sand pillar more heavily, yawning again. Out a small crack in the ceiling, she could see that the moon had risen high up in the spring sky. Her eyelids drooped slightly and the cursed herself inwardly. _Just when we started an actual conversation,_ she thought, _I get all tired. _

"I think I'm gonna go to sleep," she said, stretching out her arms as she rested against the sand. "G'night."

"Mm," Zuko half-grunted in acknowledgement. Her eyelids flickered shut and her breathing slowed.

_She wasn't even tired a few minutes ago, and now she's sleeping?_ He wondered, almost shaking his head in surprise. _Whatever. Maybe she's just one of those people that suddenly need to sleep, like Uncle._

* * *

_Quin was lost, again. And scared. And in the middle of a forest._

Not this again,_ she thought as she looked around the surrounding woods._ I thought I finished having this dream.

_She spun in a circle, glancing in-between the trees for a road or path or something she could get her bearings from. None were to be found, as always, and like the last time she sighed and sat down on the grass. A branch snapped behind her, and she turned, fear gripping her chest. A man was leering down at her, his pointed teeth inches from her face. She scurried backwards, expecting to be swished up and into a net, but only ran into something solid._

This isn't how it goes,_ she thought, turning around to look up at what had blocked her path. Zuko stood there, offering a hand to pull herself to her feet._

"_What are you doing here?" she asked as she got off of the ground._

"_It's _your_ mind," he scoffed. "You should be explaining that to me."_

"_Right."_

_The soldier, whom she had forgotten about as she conversed with the prince, suddenly reappeared behind Zuko. He pulled something, a lever, perhaps, and she snapped downwards, seeing Zuko rush upwards above her._

_No, wait, she was still on the ground. Which meant…_

_Zuko was the one imprisoned in the net this time._

_The soldier began his transformation, his pointed nose started to shift back into his round face, his chin elongating and becoming more angular. White hair suddenly replaced his brown crew cut, his eyes changing from red to a hard green._

_"__Please, let him down," Quin asked, looking at the woman._

_"__He is the son of the Fire Lord. You will be punished in due time, but he will face his judgment first," came the reply, the woman earthbending an abyss beneath the prince. "Now leave me to it__."_

_"I__t isn't his fault he's related to them," she pleaded desperately, looking into the empty hole beneath her friend. "Let him down."_

_"__No," the woman said coldly. The net gave way. Quin all but threw herself over the edge trying to grasp one of the loose strings, though she knew that she could never hold the prince's weight._

_"__It's all my fault," she whispered as she was dragged by her grandmother's rough grip away from the cavern. "My fault."_

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**Yay, foreshadowing and symbolism~!**

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